If I Needed Someone
by JoBethMegAmy. my homegirls
Summary: At the behest of her matchmaking nephew, young beat cop Jane Rizzoli asks out BPD's new medical examiner.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N** : So, this came from a tumblr prompt and I think I want to make it a **two-shot**. Just sort of a little drabble I did for fun while working on my epilogue for the '50s AU. Hope you enjoy :)

( _This has a few changes - most notably, Tommy is the oldest Rizzoli and Jane is somewhat younger than Maura.)_

* * *

"So, it's your birthday?"

Maura looked up from the table at the Division One Cafe, where she'd been eating a small plate of lasagna. She was being addressed by Jane Rizzoli, one of the beat cops who always seemed to have a kind thing to say whenever her path crossed that of the relatively new medical examiner. In fact Maura had noticed more than once that Officer Rizzoli might be looking rather somber or stressed, but would light up with a smile too lovely to be insincere whenever she caught Maura's eye.

Still, they had only exchanged the simplest of pleasantries at this point, and Maura took a moment to answer. "Yes, it is. Hence the carbohydrates," she laughed, gesturing to her plate before taking another bite. "I thought I'd treat myself."

"Psh. My mother already ratted you out," Jane said, nodding behind the counter. "Said she brought that one in eggplant, just for you, so you wouldn't have to deal with the carbs."

In tone with the light mood Jane had established, Maura smiled and asked, "What're you hiding behind your back?"

"It's...some kinda intense carbs," Jane said, looking a little sheepish as she revealed a small dish that held a cupcake with a candle in it. Maura's eyebrows rose in surprise, and Jane said, "Uh-happy birthday!"

"That's very sweet of you," Maura said, taking the dish. "Get it? _Sweet_ of you?"

"Ha! Good one doc."

"Won't you please sit and join me?" Maura asked. Jane hadn't wanted to impose, but she was thrilled at the invitation and seized it at once. "Oh, I haven't got another fork, though," Maura said, holding up the one that was currently covered in sauce from the lasagna.

"Ah, it's a cupcake. You don't need a fork for that!"

But Maura looked scandalized at the idea of eating such a frosted, crumbly thing without utensils, so Jane sprang back up to grab some more. When she sat down at the table again, Maura thanked her and gave her a quick looking-over. Jane appeared a tad fidgety, which seemed odd given that she had all but asked outright to sit with her. It was a little funny (almost) to see someone wearing such a crisp, professional uniform while looking so nervous.

Jane had been kneading her hands, but froze when she finally let herself look at Maura and saw the doctor appraising her. She held her breath as Maura's eyes traveled slowly - deliberately - up Jane's body, going up past her eyes before coming back to meet her gaze.

"Uh...what's up, doc?" Jane asked, trying to laugh.

She had yet to discover Maura's inability to lie, and so it was a pleasant surprise when Maura responded in all frankness: "I've been wondering what you'd look like in that uniform with your hair down."

"With my-oh." Maura couldn't help smiling at Jane's blush, which Jane failed to notice as she said, "I guess technically I'm on break, so..." She pulled her hair out of its restrictive bun, and Maura was surprised by its length - long, jet black locks of gently curled hair tumbled down Jane's shoulders. Jane chuckled as she self-consciously ran her hand through it. "Phew! Feels much better."

"It's gorgeous. Your hair, I mean. Well - you are too, of course. But I would think that'd go without saying."

"What? Shut up. _You're_ gorgeous," Jane sputtered, pleased but thrown off by the compliment. She was blushing deeply enough now that she could feel it, and she shook her head a little as if to try and clear it. "Um. Hey. So..." She picked up a fork and broke off a little piece of the cupcake. "It's come to my attention that you've met my nephew. Tommy Jr? My older brother's kid."

"Hm? Oh, TJ! Yes, multiple times."

With Tommy working every odd-job he could find and Lydia working full-time, TJ often found himself hanging out with his grandmother in the Division One Cafe. He was a very friendly seven-year-old, happy to engage in small talk with everyone who came through. Maura had become a favorite of his - she was sweet and didn't talk down to him. He liked that when he asked her questions, she never told him things like "you're too little to understand;" she never tried to avoid answering.

That was how he'd come to find out that she liked to date men _and_ women, a tidbit he had been ecstatic to share with Jane.

"He...really wants me to ask you out," Jane said.

This certainly hadn't been how Maura had expected the conversation to go. "Oh!"

"Yeah. I guess he overheard a conversation I had with his father about how hard it can be finding a woman to date who doesn't mind the whole cop life thing, y'know? Someone who understands it. Tommy said I should find someone at work." Encouraged by the fact that Maura's smile looked neither forced nor pitying, Jane straightened up and grinned. "According to TJ, you and I both like to play tennis, and we both like chocolate. Clearly meant to be, in the eyes of a seven-year-old."

"And what about in the eyes of a...?"

"Twenty-five-year-old. Aw, too young?" she asked when Maura winced a little.

"You're a child!" Maura laughed.

"C'mon, what're you, thirty?"

"Flattery will get you nowhere, officer," Maura said, still smiling. "Try thirty-six."

Jane whistled. "Damn! Teej didn't even know I go for older women."

"Teej?"

"TJ. Uh-I didn't mean to imply you're old, by the way. Just older than me. By a very small amount."

"I got it."

When Maura continued to eat as if they hadn't just had that exchange, Jane thought it might be best to clarify. "So...sorry, I guess that was kind of my round-about way of asking you on a date."

"Round-about? I thought you were fairly straightforward." She took a sip of water, then said, "Almost as straightforward as me."

"Yeah, I guess you're pretty forthcoming, aren't you?"

"May I be blunt?"

"By all means."

Maura didn't even need to pause to collect her thoughts: "I think you're incredibly sexy." (She tried not to react when Jane's eyebrows shot up high enough to disappear into her tousled hair.) "And I've been hoping to get to know you better."

These were things Jane had only dared dream of hearing, yet Maura's tone kept her from being ready to celebrate. "But...?"

"But I was wary of the age difference - if I were to pursue you, that is."

"Pursue me?" Jane chuckled.

"Romantically."

"Right. Well, um...I mean, my age is one of those things I _really_ cannot change and have no control over. But I'm responsible, I'm reasonably mature, and I'd love to get to know you better, too. And for what it's worth, you're pretty fine yourself." Maura chuckled at that, and when it died out, Jane said. "In all seriousness, though. I'd love to take you on a date. But if you're not comfortable with that - that's not, like, the only reason I'd want to get to know you. I'd love to just be friends. Or something beyond workplace associates. If you do, I mean."

After a long pause, Maura slid her phone across the table. "Put your number in there. Are you free this weekend?"

"Friday, yeah."

"Wonderful. Let's get dinner, and see how it goes from there."

"Cool!" Jane said, looking excited as she got back to her feet. "I gotta head back out, but text me your number and we'll set up something for Friday. Oh - and happy birthday, again! Got any fun plans?"

Maura shrugged. "Not in the typical sense, I suppose. I've never been one for big parties. I'm planning to relax with some Chardonnay while I rewatch _Planet Earth_."

"Oh, man! Good choice - I loved that show!"

"Really? I...don't suppose you're free tonight, in that case?"

"I could come by after work, yeah!"

"I'll text you my address," Maura said, picking up her phone. "And then I suppose we can see how things go from tonight."

Jane was beaming with excitement. "Sweet! I'll see you then."

As she watched Jane head out, Maura was able to appreciate the phrase "hate to see them leave, love to watch them go" for the first time in her life. She was glad that Jane hadn't asked her, even in jest, how _she_ fantasized things might go from tonight. All she got were flashes of a depleted Chardonnay bottle, a couch, a mostly-unwatched nature documentary and a flurry of clothes.

She laughed to herself and took a large bite of the cupcake. _Don't want to overwhelm her quite yet._


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N** : The more time I've had to think about this story, the more I think of what things I'd like to do. So it'll be more than a two-shot. Not necessarily a linear narrative as much as just sort of chunks out of this relationship. When I think about early canon Jane and Maura, they have this insane sexual chemistry but SO many differences that could make a viable relationship difficult, and I think would be interesting to tease those out. _**I can't promise regular updates**_ , but I'd like to come back to this when I can.

 _Normally I don't throw these two together so fast, but I guess was I thinking of that time in 1x6 when Maura so eagerly encouraged Jane to sleep with her attractive but dull date. That's who this Maura is._

* * *

It was a little after eight-thirty when Maura heard her doorbell ring.

Of course she had no idea that Jane had spent about five minutes on the porch in shock, checking multiple times that she was at the right address. She hadn't been expecting Maura's home to look like anything in particular, but the grandness of the house was a surprise—her apartment was probably the size of this garage. But there was no reason at all to feel intimidated; Maura had invited her here. The impulse was to associate a place like this with some level of snobbery, which seemed very unlikely given what she knew of Maura so far.

 _Okay! Good pep talk_. _You got this._

By the time Maura opened the door, Jane had been able to swing back to the more confident state of mind that had brought her here—the one which remembered Maura had invited her over on her birthday. The Maura who had said she found Jane incredibly sexy.

"Excuse me, ma'am," Jane said when Maura opened the door. Still in uniform, she pulled her hair out of its bun and removed her shades. "I hear it's someone's birthday. Your neighbors have been calling in with some noise complaints."

Maura's blank stare lasted only a few seconds, but going that long with no reaction was excruciating to Jane. She had yet to be familiar with the thought process Maura needed to undergo whenever she was caught off guard by something whose purpose was to elicit laughter.

 _The police? – oh, it's Jane._

 _Why was she wearing her Aviators at night? – oh, this is her police officer take on that "sexy librarian" thing so many dates have asked me to do._

 _Noise complaints? How is that possible when all I've been doing is watching television by myself? – oh right, this is sort of what that stripper dressed as a cop said at Ann's bachelorette party._

 _Wait, is she about to strip? – no, that's a real uniform. She can't just yank the pants off._

Both of them were wondering if it was an appropriate joke to make when they'd really only just been properly introduced, but Maura at last laughed and opened the door wide enough for Jane to walk inside. The ball was in Maura's court to dictate how much further she let the joke go: "I must say, I've never had a uniformed officer on my porch. Am I in trouble?"

"I don't know," Jane said, raising one eyebrow for dramatic effect. "You tell me."

Maura looked at Jane a few moments longer, unconsciously biting her lip and running her finger down the side of her wine glass. Before she could say anything, Jane spoke up again.

"Sorry if that was kinda weird," she chuckled. "I was just being a bit of a goof, I guess. I do that sometimes. Helps blow off a little steam after work." She twirled her hat in her hands. "Also, I remembered what you said about my hair and the uniform."

"That was sweet of you," Maura said. She reached out to touch Jane's hair, but first asked, "May I?"

The fact that she asked, and that it wasn't a rhetorical question, really meant a lot to someone whose youth had consisted of multiple people (including strangers) remarking on the beauty of her curls and touching them without permission. She whispered that it was fine, and Maura gently reached out to run her fingers through Jane's hair. Any time she came up against a tangle, she would deftly extract rather than try to force her finger through it.

 _You're going about this backwards. If you keep going in this vein, you're going to jump her right this second, and that's not what you asked over for. At least, not at the outset._

"Would you like some Chardonnay?" Maura asked, hand now securely back in her pocket. "Or sorry, would you like to change first?"

"I guess I should," Jane said. "These uniforms weren't really designed for relaxation."

"They don't breathe."

"Well, I guess that's it, in a word!"

The response came out before Maura could pause to help herself: "That was three words."

"Yeah, well, I'm a heavy tipper," Jane said with a cheesy wink. She tugged at her backpack strap and asked, "Bathroom?"

Maura directed her towards it and returned to the kitchen to pour a glass of wine for Jane. If she were honest with herself, Maura knew part of her attraction to Jane had to do with the way she filled out that uniform. (She did not consider physical attraction at all shallow, but did sometimes question whether liking the uniform could be considered a fetish.) Mentally playing dress-up with people she knew was a game she often played to pass the time – strictly a PG version, where Sergeant Korsak wore suits that fit him and Susie Chang wore shoes that were more adventurous. She had been very drawn to the way Jane's classical feminine features contrasted with the masculinity of her uniform and even the way she often carried herself at the precinct. Although Maura had envisioned a multitude of ensembles Jane would kill in, she'd been unable to guess what she might wear off the job.

"I almost feel like I'm dressed too casually to be allowed in this house," Jane joked upon her return.

Dark blue jeans and a yellow, wrinkled top. Far below Jane's clotheshorse potential, but at least the yellow provided a nice splash of color.

"That shirt is a nice color on you."

"Thanks."

"Have you always been that tall? I mean, were you tall for your age as a kid? Did people ever tell you that you should be a model?"

"They used to all the time when I was younger, yeah," Jane laughed as Maura handed her a glass of wine. (She'd been planning on just asking for water or waiting if maybe some other type of alcoholic beverage would be offered, because for the life of her she'd never been able to acquire a taste for wine. But now that Maura was handing her the glass, it seemed rude to refuse it.) "I think my mom really hoped I'd be flattered and eventually try to follow-up with modeling, but I leant my tallness to sports instead."

"Basketball?" Maura asked, leading the way to the couch.

"Captain of the volleyball team, and a couple of years of field hockey. I was an attacker."

Maura smirked. "Yes, I'm sure you were very aggressive."

"It's a position," Jane said. "My mother mostly approved because it was the only time I was willing to put on a skirt. Although I hear kids are fighting that more these days – we definitely didn't have a choice."

"Your mother must've had a fit when you decided to become a police officer."

"Well, she at least had fair warning," Jane chuckled. "I've wanted to be a cop practically my whole life. Not an easy dream when you're surrounded by a kinda traditional family. Know what my grandfather told me? He said boys are cops, girls are meter maids. Kinda wish he could see me now." (Maura wasn't sure what sort of sentiment to respond with, and also wondered how Jane's "traditional" family felt about her being interested in women. But their first real conversation together didn't feel the like time to bring that up, unless Jane volunteered it herself.) She went on: "What about you, did you always want to cut up dead people?"

Maura laughed at the candid description. "I suppose it's hard to explain the nature of my work without being grisly, isn't it? But come on, Jane. Let's not have any shop talk right now. I know what you do, you know what I do."

"In the vaguest sense," Jane said.

But Maura held her ground. After years of experience, she'd learned that few things could sour a date faster than getting carried away talking about the morgue. "Tell me more about TJ. You said he wanted you to ask me out? Is that true, or was it just your cover?"

"Aw, c'mon!" Jane said with one of her boisterous laughs, which had quickly become Maura's new favorite sound. "I'm not _that_ shy, to make up an excuse to ask you out! He just kinda gave me that nudge to get going. He seems to really like you a lot." She smiled when Maura looked pleased by this, and she deduced that Maura wasn't used to kids liking her. "Yeah. He says you're very smart, and you tell it like it is. I respect that. People who don't talk down to kids, I mean."

"It goes against my nature." She grinned. "What did he tell you about me? You mentioned my liking tennis and chocolate. Did he tell you anything else?"

"Let's see. He said you were honest. Said you were 'a doctor or something,' said you thought it was an 'abomination'—he had trouble with that word—when Christmas music gets played before December, and he mentioned you had a turtle?"

"Tortoise," Maura muttered under her breath.

Jane's eyes lit up. "Oh! And he said you claim to play a mean game of chess."

"Whenever I get the chance," Maura chuckled. "I've found that most opponents aren't really worth my time. That leaves the most extravagant birthday gift my parents ever sent me—" She nodded at a cabinet behind Jane. "—to do little more than collect dust." Jane whistled. The pieces were made of jade and what appeared to be gold-plated brass (or something along those lines), and when she stood up to get a closer look, could see that each piece had been hand-carved. "They picked it up when they visited Xi'An in China two years ago. I love a good chess game," Maura continued from the couch, "but I don't often have people over. And when I do, they don't usually present much of a challenge."

She took a long sip of wine, eyebrows raised, and Jane took the bait. "Okay, Dr. Isles. You're looking at the reigning Rizzoli chess champion."

"TJ told me as much."

"Well what he doesn't know is that I could even beat you buzzed. Tipsy. Maybe even drunk."

"Not off that," Maura laughed. "You haven't even taken a sip!" She got up to walk over to Jane, who appeared to be fumbling for some sort of excuse or apology. "Why don't I take that off your hands," Maura murmured, standing indecently close as she lifted the glass out of Jane's hand, "and get you something you like?"

For a few moments, Jane forget how to formulate speech. "Um. Uh." She blinked hard, half-expecting Maura to be back on the couch when she opened her eyes, but there she still stood—although the look on Maura's face certainly seemed to suggest they were in another room of the house. "Have you got any, um… any… whiskey?"

Maura laughed. "I didn't think people with your youthful vitality would go for whiskey."

"Har, har."

"A Jack and Coke?"

"Nah. Give it to me straight up."

"Oh, come on," Maura scoffed. "I still want you to at least have to _try_ and beat me in this game."

"And I will. Gimme the whiskey."

"Ginger ale on the side?"

"Have some confidence in me, doc."

Maura smirked again. "Straight-up it is."

She walked back to grab her own wine glass, placing it and Jane's at a nearby table. Though she never drank Jack Daniels herself, a bottle of it was always in her home in case a particular visitor ever dropped by unexpectedly. She was sure he wouldn't mind sharing it with Jane, and just hoped Jane wouldn't question her having it in the house.

 _Of course she won't. She doesn't know well enough to think it's out of character._

"Care to try and throw off my concentration with anything else?" Jane asked when Maura returned with the glass. When she realized how suggestive that sounded, she hastened to suggest, "Put on some music or something? Next disc of _Planet Earth_?"

"Well, since you suggested it…"

Of course Maura had a record player. Normally Jane would dismiss something like that as hipster nonsense, but it was easy to see from the sheer class Maura exuded that she didn't own this in an attempt to be cool (even when she talked about the richer sound and inherently superior quality of the record). When the music started and Jane asked what they were listening to, Maura said, "It's a collaboration between Sinatra and the Brazilian musician Jobim." She unblushingly added, "Actually I thought of this song the first time I saw you, and it still makes me think of you."

That of course got Jane's attention right away, and as Maura set up the chessboard on the table, Jane took in the lyrics:

 _Tall and tan and young and lovely,_

 _the girl from Ipanema goes walking and_

 _when she passes, each one she passes goes—_

A breathy, wistful romantic sigh issued from the record player. Jane, who had been staring at a nondescript spot on the carpet as she listened, moved her eyes to Maura, who was finishing up the board and had started to dance a little as she walked towards Jane.

 _When she walks she's like a samba_

 _that swings so cool and sways so gentle that_

 _when she passes each one she passes goes—_

"Ooh," Maura cooed, sighing in time with the song.

She handed Jane the whiskey, but for as dizzy as she suddenly felt, Jane thought she might've been buzzed already. When Maura sashayed back to the table to the gentle rhythm of the song, Jane was hypnotized and almost tripped twice (an impressive feat, given that it only took five steps to get there). Her concentration on the lyrics had ebbed, but came back in time for –

 _But each day when she walks to the sea,_

 _She looks straight ahead, not at me_.

"I'm not sure _that_ lyric could've reminded you of me," Jane chuckled. "I'm pretty sure every time I've seen you at the precinct, I've looked straight at you. Or gay-ly at you, if you will," she said, earning a small laugh. "Hopefully not to the point that it was indecent."

"Certainly not, officer," Maura said, and hearing the title from her lips made Jane instantly understand why so many people considered her uniform a turn-on. "Seeing that you were happy to see me made me happy." She lifted her wine glass before adding, "People are attracted to people who are attracted to them."

Seeing Maura say that over the rim of her glass made Jane want to toss the table out of the way and kiss her right then. Her hands were on either side of the table, as if she might in fact do just that, but she reconsidered upon looking down and remembering this chess set was not made of plastic.

"So…just out of curiosity, how much would it cost me if I accidentally broke one of these pieces?"

"Monetarily, I'm not sure offhand. But I can say it would lessen your odds of getting lucky tonight."

Jane's eyes widened as she was again taken aback by Maura's frankness. "Right. Slow and steady it is, then."

Maura fast realized that TJ's evaluation of Jane's skills hadn't been empty or ignorant praise of his favorite aunt. Usually Maura could win a game of chess with her eyes closed (so to speak)—she had thought she'd maybe at least be able to strike up a good conversation, but she found it necessary to pay strict attention to Jane's every action, down to the most minute detail. At least, that's _mostly_ what she was doing. She also couldn't help just admiring the peerless beauty of Jane's face in concentration – how her jaw would tighten, her brow crease as long, slender fingers hovered over a given piece.

And then the corners of her mouth would tug upwards once she'd made her move. At first, she tried to keep a neutral expression; but the more she drank, the wider her grin would get.

When enough time had passed, she started to get a little careless, and proudly made a move which left her queen wide open. Chuckling at the triumphant grin on Jane's face, Maura said, "My, my. You're what my first boss would've called a cocky son of a bitch."

"Whoa, Dr. Isles!" Jane laughed. "Our priest growin' up always said that bad language was a sign of someone with an ill education. Like, you'd only use those words if you weren't intelligent enough to know others."

"Is that so?" Maura asked. She took out Jane's queen with one of her knights. "No offense, but your priest doesn't know sh—"

"Shhhhooot," Jane groaned, realizing her loss. She looked rather cute in her confusion, Maura thought – like a cat who couldn't understand what'd happened to the bubble she'd just popped. But Jane soon straightened up and said, "No big. I can still whip your ass..." She paused to hiccup, missing Maura's intrigued reaction. "...at this game without a queen."

"All right. Why don't we make this a little more interesting, then? Create some stakes. Say, if I win, you have to let me take you shopping for new clothes. I want to help you reach your potential."

"Ughhh. You're gonna have a horrible time, man, trust me. I mean if you ask me, clothes are just something you put on to avoid being arrested."

Maybe it was partially due to the wine, but Maura felt like she hadn't laughed so much in one evening in a long time. "Yes, well, I'm willing to risk any unpleasantness."

"Okay, you've been foreordained. I mean, forewarned. Hm…I guess I don't really know you well enough to decide what to ask for if—when—I win."

"TJ told me you want to make detective. You should be learning how to pick up clues."

That was a fair point. "Mm…all I can think is that I wanna make you chug a beer if I win," she said, and the disgust on Maura's face made it clear this was indeed a fate she wanted to avoid. "But I dunno. Would it be cheating to ask for a rain-check? I kinda wanna get to know you better before I ask you to commit to something, because everything I'm come up with right now is, like, sexy. Generic sexy. If I win, I wanna get to know you better."

"Oh, Jane. You'll get to know me better regardless of whether you win." She crossed her legs under the table, her foot brushing Jane's shin in the process. While Jane tried to figure out if that had been done on purpose, Maura added, "If you win, I'll show you the last thing I bought when I went clothes shopping. I think you'll like my taste."

"Hmm…kay. I've never really been one for fashion shows, but I think you'd be a pretty sweet model."

Maura lost on purpose. She wasn't sure if Jane caught that or not – likely not.

"Whoa," Jane muttered. "I wasn't expecting to win so quick. I almost feel kinda bad, beating you on your birthday and everything."

"Don't feel badly, please. It was a wonderful gift just to enjoy the challenge of a game. You really are impressive, I must say – especially given all that whiskey. How drunk would you say you are, anyway?"

"Mm…I'd say that I've had enough to get really brave," she said. "Anymore and I might start weeping." When she hiccuped again, she could smell her breath, and she took a stick of spearmint gum from a pack in her back pocket to chew on.

After a few moments of silence, Maura steeled herself to ask, "What's your game, Jane?"

"We just played it, honey."

"No, I mean…" She sighed. "What's your angle—with me? Are you one of those girls who likes to find a woman a little older than you, women you think are sad and lonely and feel underappreciated—bed them just to give them a little esteem?" She took her last sip of wine, trying to remain calm under Jane's stare. "Because I've met those college Casanovas before, and I—"

"Casanova?" Jane laughed. "Please! I'm—hell. No. And you, low esteem? Pshh. You're confident. And that's sexy. Real sexy. Almost as sexy as I'm sure you're gonna look wearing … whatever you said you were gonna wear if I won."

Maura smirked and stood up from the table. "Right. I'll just need a moment. Would you mind putting these glasses in the sink? I'll be right back."

On her way out of the room, Maura removed the record from the player. When Jane got up from her chair, she felt like the sound was magnified tenfold in the new silence. She carefully collected their glassware to put them in the sink, then spent a couple of minutes searching for a garbage can to spit her gum into. Once this was accomplished, she leaned against the nearest wall and closed her eyes. Work had been long and tiring today, and normally she'd have loved to just go home and crash, but the the thought of resisting an invitation to Maura's home hadn't even crossed her mind.

Her family used to tease her about being a grandpa because, like her grandfather, she had an impressive ability to fall asleep anywhere, in any position, at the drop of a hat.

She had no idea how long she'd been resting against the wall when she heard Maura murmur her name. When she opened her eyes, she saw Maura standing on the other side of the room in a long, black robe. Jane blinked. Was that lace?

"You look tired," Maura observed in a quiet voice.

Jane shrugged, still leaning against the wall. "Been a long day. But I knew I had this to look forward to, and that's helped."

"Looking forward to what, exactly?"

"You. Just spending time with you."

Maura could feel herself reacting to the sweet vulnerability in Jane's soft tone. While she'd never seen Jane get tough or abrasive around BPD, she had to imagine that as an officer, Jane _did_ have to once in a while. This sensitive, quiet side was unexpected, and Maura hoped it wasn't just brought out by alcohol. Jane had stirred something within her that Maura hadn't felt in a very long time; it was as if they'd known each other much longer than they really had, as if their game and conversation tonight had only been the most recent in a countless stream of them.

She had never been shy or self-conscious about herself or what she wanted before, and she wasn't going to start now.

"Jane? Would you like to stay?"

"Hm? Of course. How's about that robe? Is that your most recent purchase?"

"Not quite."

In one fluid movement Maura let the robe fall to the floor, leaving her in a black lace bra and boyshorts. Until this moment, Jane had never really given much importance to matching lingerie, but _hot damn_. She briefly felt guilty for staring, but a smile crept into place at the realization that that was what Maura was inviting her to do.

That, and possibly more.

That and _definitely_ more, evidenced by Maura's expectant expression as she said, "Your move, officer."


	3. Chapter 3

This was one of those times Jane was steadily realizing she needed to make friends, and _fast_. Aside from Frost, she didn't really hang out with anyone. Work managed to keep a pretty tight lid on her social life; she had no interest in maintaining any friendships from high school; and despite her positive and open attitude, there was nobody she was really close enough to talk with at BPD. Sure, she was well-liked and had people she could go get a beer with, but nobody she could really talk to about her personal life.

It didn't seem professional or appropriate to talk with Frost—or anyone else at work—about her evening at the M.E.'s, and it was getting hard to stay chill.

She reached the elevator just as Maura was getting out, and she froze. Maura smiled at her as if this were just any other normal morning—not _the morning after I made her come four times and touched and saw every inch of her skin while she bruised my scalp with those deceptively short fingernails_. What was the protocol, here? Did they continue acting like their relationship hadn't radically changed? Just keep smiling politely at each other when they passed in the halls?

Jane might've been able to keep her cool and just nod in a friendly manner if she hadn't been so unprepared for how breathtaking Maura looked this morning. In addition to wearing a dark blue dress that might've been painted on, Maura had styled her hair into a ponytail with side bangs and good God Jane never imagined a mere hairdo could yank the rug out from under her like this.

Her eloquent response to Maura's cheerful "good morning, officer," was to say, "holy shit."

Maura raised her eyebrows, as did her very devoted assistant. (Jane didn't know her name, but recognized the woman as someone who could frequently be seen doing a stunning impression of Maura's shadow.)

It took Jane a moment to realize her jaw was still open, and she gave her head a quick shake. "Um. Hi! Sorry, uh—I… just remembered I have to be somewhere. Else. Somewhere else. Excuse me."

With that, she hastily turned on her heel and all but ran to the nearest staircase, and Maura wasn't sure whether she should laugh or cringe. Her assistant Susie had a million questions (or a million and a half), but was too intimidated by and revered her boss too much to ask anything that might even whiff of impropriety. Still, she made silent note of the tiny expressive changes in Maura's countenance as they made their way to the Division One Café for some coffee.

"Dr. Chang," Maura abruptly said. "Do you know anything about Officer Rizzoli?"

"Frankie or Jane? Um… or, I guess you mean Jane, since we just, um, saw her."

"Yes, Jane."

"I don't know a lot about her, to be honest, although I'd say we've been here about the same amount of time. She seems nice enough, seems pretty good at her job. That encounter at the elevator _was_ a tad strange, though..."

"A tad," Maura granted her.

When half the workday had passed and Maura had yet to hear from or see Jane again, she decided the polite thing to do (to rid Jane of any lingering anxiety if for no other reason) would be to contact her. She shot Jane a text: _Hi there – I hope you aren't too uncomfortable today? Maybe we should've talked a little bit more about boundaries._

The response was almost immediate: _**No, you're fine, I'm sorry I was a little weird this morning.**_ Maura was going to to reply, but saw that Jane was typing another message (not seeing, of course, that Jane was fighting a blush as she did so). _**I'm usually not quite so uncouth in my greetings. You just looked so hot and it kind of threw me off my game.**_

 _ **Not that you don't always look hot, because you do.**_

 _ **And not that that's the most important thing about you either, because it's not, obviously.**_

 _ **Gahhh, I'm sorry. Shutting up**_.

Maura couldn't help chuckling. _Please, never shut up. You're sweet._

It was a couple of minutes before Jane replied: _**I do think maybe we should talk today, though, if you'd be down for that.**_

 _Definitely down. Have you gotten lunch yet?_

 _ **Nope, you? Would you like to go out?**_

 _I thought I'd have mine in today. Can you join me in my office in ten minutes?_

In ten minutes on the dot, Maura heard a knock at her office door. She called out "come in," and smiled when Jane Rizzoli poked her head inside. Jane shut the door behind her and cast around for a place to sit; she wasn't sure if half the things in here were furniture or modern art. By now, enough people had walked into this office that Maura had become familiar with the confused, _a-five-year-old-could-make-that-in-an-arts-and-crafts-class_ expression, and preemptively stood up to invite Jane to sit with her on a safe-looking couch.

After an awkward silence, Jane said, "If I ask you something, would you answer me honestly?"

Jane was sort of impressed that the answer came right away: "Of course. I never lie. I think that's probably something your nephew likes about me—because I can't lie, I never give him the dodging sorts of answers that other adults do."

"Wait, you _can't_ lie? How…?

"Let's not get into it right now."

But Jane couldn't quite move past this. "So, wait. Let's say, like, your grandmother had spent hours slaving away making some amazing meal for your birthday, but she left out a key ingredient and it tasted like crap, you would tell her?"

"Hm, well 'crap' probably wouldn't be the word I'd use, but if it didn't taste good, I wouldn't tell her it did."

"You never told a lie to spare someone's feelings?"

"I guess I hope that if we're really close, they'd appreciate my honesty."

"Okay, what about…you never slept with someone and told them it was good when it wasn't?"

"Of course not!" Maura laughed. "Why on earth do women do that? It makes no sense to me at all. Sex is nothing to take lightly—it's something people need to be much more frank about. If someone's ego is so massive that they can't hear critiques or ways they might improve the pleasure of their partner, they have no place in my bed."

Jane wasn't sure whether to laugh or be mortified. "Huh. I guess I've never thought of sex as something to be critiqued. A sex critique."

Maura had to laugh at that one. "Are you angling for one?"

"I wasn't, no, but now I'm also not sure I'd even want to hear it."

"Oh, don't be modest, Jane. You were unquestionably the best lover I've had in recent memory."

Even though Maura said it in a very matter-of-fact way, as if she was appraising the professional work of one of her underlings, Jane could almost swear she was on fire. Why was her face so hot and her hands so clammy? "Wow! Cool. Okay." She laughed nervously. "Sorry, I guess I'm just not used to… such bluntness. It'd sure make my job a lot easier if everyone was as honest as you."

Maura smiled at her. "Granted I've never had to try and doge the law, but lying holds little value to me. Even if something hurts to hear, it saves a lot of time and awkwardness in the long run to be open from the start. Maybe you're too young to understand that, but it'll catch up with you at some point."

Her tone wasn't at all condescending, but Jane took some offense all the same. "Hey, come on! I'm plenty mature!"

The timing could not have been worse when Angela knocked on the glass window of Maura's office. The blinds were open, and the women turned to see Angela holding a sack lunch and waving at Jane. Again Jane was torn between amusement and some form of humiliation: she laugh-groaned into her hands as Maura went to open the door.

"Hi, ladies!" Angela said. "Janie, I made this for you this morning, remember? You left it upstairs. Frankie said you'd come to visit Dr. Isles for lunch and I thought I'd better bring it down. Maura, do you have something to eat?"

"I do, Angela, thank you," Maura said, sparing a glance for Jane.

Jane's eyebrows shot up, and she stared at Maura ( _did she just wink at me? Is that a thing people still do?!_ ) as Angela thrust the paper sack into her hands.

"Well, I'd love to stay and chat with you girls, but duty calls," Angela said, thumbing in the direction of the upstairs. "Enjoy!"

When Jane's stomach grumbled, Maura said, "Please eat whatever that is if you're hungry." It was with slight embarrassment that Jane pulled out the peanut butter-and-fluff sandwich (on white bread, no less), cuing a puzzled expression from Maura. "What is that white substance?" she asked. "Surely your mother wouldn't make something with moldy jam?"

"It's fluff. Marshmallow fluff."

"Marshmallow. On…a sandwich?"

"Yes," Jane said through a mouthful of sandwich. "With peanut butter, a delightful paste made from peanuts and their oils. What, didn't have that at your fancy boarding school?"

"How'd you know I went to boarding school?"

"Call it an educated guess."

Maura could feel a smile tugging at her lips. "All right, well done. Now what was it you wanted to ask me?"

"Hm?"

"When you first came in here, you wanted to know if I'd answer a question for you, and answer it honestly. Then we got a little off track."

"Oh, yeah." Jane took another bite of her sandwich, chewing thoughtfully. Maura was at least glad to see a small grin come back as she asked, "Did you lose that chess game on purpose last night?"

Maura laughed. "I did."

"Why?"

"Why? Hm…well, I suppose because I knew what I'd have to wear if I lost, as per our agreement, and I wanted you to see me in it. And to answer what I presume would be your next question, I wanted you to see me in it because I…" She wasn't self-conscious, but she couldn't help laughing a little bit again at her directness. "I'm not generally a spontaneous person, but while I had you at my house, I spontaneously realized that I really wanted you to take me to bed for my birthday."

Jane was still getting used to Maura's forthcoming nature, and still wasn't entirely sure how to respond to it. She laughed, but Maura sensed there was some discomfort there. "Wow, uh, I'm flattered?" she said, and Maura just shrugged, still smiling. "To be totally honest, um, that's not why I went over to your house. Like, I wasn't planning to do… what we did."

"It's not why I invited you, either. That's why I clarified the spontaneous aspect of my desire…but I'm not surprised that it happened."

"I guess I am, a little bit," Jane admitted. "I've never moved that fast before."

"I will say, I was impressed with the velocity you reached in hurtling the couch to get to me," Maura said, and Jane just laughed and rolled her eyes. "Are you sorry?"

Jane waited perhaps a second too long to answer, trying to give herself time to articulate a good response, but she worried that Maura would think she was being insincere. "No, I'm not sorry. I had a really amazing time, from start to finish."

"I was just following the nonverbal cues I thought you were sending me."

"I was, I mean I'm sure I was sending those. But hell," Jane laughed, "you changed into that lace and what choice did I have?"

"You had a choice," Maura said, suddenly sounding rather serious. "Please don't…"

Jane frowned. "I'm sorry, I meant it as a compliment."

Maura just nodded, not wanting to get into it. One of the reasons she'd been wary of pursuing Jane was their age difference—she was afraid of coming off as predatory. Seductive, sure. But she never wanted to be in a position where she made Jane feel like she _had_ to do anything. She never wanted Jane to feel like she couldn't say "no" if she wanted to.

Jane continued: "Um…so, I'm kinda new to this, I mean. Should I have woken you up this morning?"

"No, you did the right thing. It was very sweet of you to leave a note."

 _Hey – Korsak called me to a homicide scene, gotta go. I had an amazing time. I hope you had a great birthday! – Jane_

At the time, Jane hadn't been sure if she was glad or not that she'd been woken up by a call. Korsak knew she was anxious to become a homicide detective someday, and reached out to her for help whenever he could use a uniformed cop on a scene. She hadn't been sure how the morning with Maura would proceed, and had almost glad for a reason to go—something which in retrospect felt a little cowardly, or at least staving off the inevitable. It seemed rude to walk out without leaving word of why she was doing so, hence the hastily-scribbled note left on Maura's nightstand.

"So does this mean we can still go out on Friday?" Jane asked. "Like, out to dinner and everything?"

"I would love that."

Jane's face lit up. "Nice!" She took a swig from the water bottle Angela had also packed, then crumpled the paper sack and threw it into Maura's garbage can. "I'm sorry again for our, uh, interaction at the elevator this morning. That was totally unprofessional and I promise I'll never do anything like that at work again."

"You don't need to apologize. I enjoyed it."

"Yeah?"

Maura stood up, leaning against her office door as Jane also got to her feet.. "I guess I can't help it," she said. "I like the way you look at me."

"You look pretty smokin' in that dress, I have to say. Although I'd also wager another educated guess that you'd look amazing in nothing. I mean—I mean anything."

Maura bit her cheek. She loved Jane's bravado, but she also loved when she got flustered. "I've actually thought of an addendum I'd make to your 'sex critique,' as you called it." When Jane's eyebrows rose inquisitively, Maura elaborated, "I realize you made pleasing me the focus because it was my birthday, and that was very gracious of you. But I also get pleasure from giving. Part of the reason I asked you to stay in bed with me was because I intended to reciprocate in the morning, but then you left."

Although Jane looked pleased to hear this, she did not react with quite the enthusiasm Maura had expected. Her next question was also not what Maura had expected her to glean from this admission: "What was the rest of the reason you asked me to stay?"

It took Maura a moment to figure out her answer. "I missed how it feels to sleep with someone. Just sleep, I mean. It felt so nice to have a warm person next to me—but not just anyone. Someone I already felt a connection with. You intrigue me, Jane. You intrigue me and you interest me, and I like you. And not just because you're fantastic in bed."

"Hey, no need to stoke the ego," Jane laughed. "For what it's worth, I think you're pretty great, too. And…I look forward to the reciprocation?"

"Are you asking me or telling me?"

"Sorry, it just sounds kinda clinical when I say it."

Maura bit her lip. "I'm very tempted to indulge right now, but I think reaching that level of intimacy in the workplace is something _I_ would need more time to develop. But more significantly, my lab techs are out there and they know you're in here, and I think suspicious may be aroused if I were to suddenly close the blinds and lock my door. My Senior Criminalist, Susie Chang, is already a little sensitive to you."

"Susie? Oh, is she the one who was with you at the elevator?"

"Mm-hm."

"Ah, gotcha. Okay, well, um… I guess in that case, I'd better get back to work. Although you know, this means you're not following up."

"On what?"

"You winked at me when my mother asked if you had anything to eat. Unless—I mean, unless I totally misinterpreted that whole exchange."

Maura just laughed and opened her door. "Oh, Jane."

"Ha! Oh, me…"

Maura kept her voice low, making sure Jane was the only one who heard her when she said, "You didn't misinterpret that at all. Your mother just didn't ask me when I would be eating."

With a smile, Maura shut the door and Jane stood there for a moment, stunned. When she turned around, it was to see Susie giving her a distrustful look from across the room. Jane cleared her throat, tugged at her belt, and walked to the morgue door with as confident a stride as she could muster, even managing a breezy "what's up, Chang?" on her way out.


	4. Chapter 4

The sun was just barely starting to set when Maura pulled up to Jane's complex on Friday. She saw Jane playing catch with TJ on the yard. She had met Tommy once, briefly, a while ago when he'd dropped TJ off at the Division One Café, and recognized him sitting on the complex steps with who she assumed was TJ's mother.

Jane had mentioned they'd be coming by around four, but that she expected them to be gone before her and Maura's date. Although it did make her feel a tad creepy, Maura had decided to get to the complex early so she could see Jane playing outside with her nephew, as she'd explained would likely be his plan for the afternoon. Watching from her car in the lot, Maura couldn't hear what anyone was saying, but she liked getting to see Jane interact with the boy.

TJ was very well-behaved and calm at the café, but he seemed to really be letting himself loose out here: he was running and jumping with needless verve to catch each of Jane's throws. Maura didn't recognize the type of ball they were using; its shape resembled that of a small football, but it was blue in color and seemed to have some kind of tail to it. When Tommy and his wife stood up, seeming to gesture that it was time to leave, TJ made an appeal to Jane. She leaned back and gave the ball a toss as high into the air as she could, which was actually a rather impressive distance.

As TJ helped his mother pack up everything they'd brought, Tommy took Jane aside for a moment. "So uh, hot date tonight?"

"Yeah, she should be here soon," Jane said, unable to fight a grin.

"Hey, why didn't you want her to come while we were here? I bet TJ would be psyched if he knew you guys were going out!"

Jane was still smiling, but she shrugged. "Eh, I dunno. I don't want to get him all excited about it if it doesn't end up going anywhere, y'know? If it pans out okay, then sure, he'll know. Actually, this is sort of our second date." When Tommy raised his eyebrows, looking impressed, Jane lowered her voice a little and said, "We were just hanging out at her place, and things got a little, uh, intimate." She laughed when he gave her a congratulatory shoulder punch. "Yeah, I'm gonna be saving up to buy TJ a Porsche when he turns sixteen as a thank-you for getting the ball rolling on this."

"Daaaamn, Janie!" Tommy laughed. "I didn't think it was your style to get things going so fast."

"It's not, usually. This was just sorta spontaneous," Jane said, trying to play it cool and hoping there weren't any uncomfortable ramifications of said spontaneity – more than there had been already. "It was a little weird coming back to work and seeing her there at first, but…"

"Tommy!" Lydia called. "Come on, the movie starts in twenty minutes! We gotta get gone if we want time to buy hot dogs at the theater!"

"Right, sure," Tommy said. "I'll see you later, Jane—have fun!"

Once Tommy and his family had driven off, Maura decided it was safe to get out of her car. Jane was still standing by the steps of her building, seemingly in the process of texting someone when she saw Maura approaching from the corner of her eye. She straightened up and pocketed her phone, shooting Maura a grin.

"Hey! I was just texting you."

"Are we still on for tonight?"

"Yeah, of course," Jane said urgently. "I just thought maybe I'd better change." She plucked the sleeve of her shirt, giving it a whiff. "I've been playing catch with my nephew, and I didn't work up too much of a sweat or anything, but he did tackle me into the dirt a few times."

"Yes, I see," Maura said, looking amused.

Again feeling very uncertain of protocol, Jane said, "Um…do you want to come up? I'll only be a minute." It seemed weird to ask Maura to wait outside when she was already here.

Maura followed her into the complex and up the stairs, and it was only when they reached her door that it occurred to Jane to worry about what the interior of her apartment looked like. She wondered how much she could try to blame on having just had a messy young nephew over, but when she opened the door, it was glaringly apparent that not even a rambunctious six-year-old could've made this much of a mess in one visit.

 _Oh, I shouldn't have rolled my eyes when Ma suggested dusting. I thought dusting was something old ladies do when they're bored. But oh, my God! There's dust everywhere! It's on everything! And why haven't I taken out the recycling?! The lid's about to come off! There are beer bottles everywhere, holy, crap, Ma is right – I'm a slob._

"Erm—sorry," Jane mumbled, hurrying to pick up a couple of sweaters that had been discarded on the couch and kitchen chairs. "I'll, um, just be a sec."

She all but scrambled to the bedroom, closing the door before Maura could get a chance to see how much worse it was in there.

Maura had fought to keep her expression neutral, but to say she'd been put off by the messiness of the apartment would be a vast understatement. As a college freshman she'd actually requested to switch dorm rooms because her roommate, apparently like Jane, did not hold cleanliness in any type of regard and the clutter drove Maura crazy. It wasn't just a matter of keeping things organized; it was an issue of health if nothing else. She glanced into the kitchen and shuddered at the sight of all the dirty dishes piled in the sink.

But after the initial shock, more charitable thoughts started to settle in. Her first freshman roommate had been unapologetically lazy, and rude to boot – she made a sport of being particularly messy because she knew how much it bothered Maura. By contrast, Jane worked long hours at a job that was both physically and emotionally exhausting. Angela had probably been the type of parent to badger her kids about cleaning up after themselves, and no doubt Jane would be excited to distance herself from that once she got her own place.

It then occurred to Maura that she was standing in Jane's first home away from home – making Maura feel, yet again, that Jane was far too young for her.

 _How old did she say TJ is? Seven? That means she was eighteen when he was born. I would've been about thirty. Good Lord, what am I doing?_

But her nerves ebbed away when Jane reappeared with a chipper "Ready!" She had tried to dress to match Maura's level of casualness, and was glad to sense Maura's approval as those light brown eyes raked over her. Dark blue jeans were tucked into tall brown boots, which nicely accentuated Jane's legs. The loose purple sweater draped in a beautiful manner that Maura was almost sure was accidental. "Is this okay?" Jane clarified when Maura failed to say anything. "I mean, are you taking me some place super fancy?"

Maura snapped out of it. "No, what you're wearing is perfect. You look gorgeous." She found it cute that Jane's reaction to this was to grin and blush. "Shall we get going?"

"Yeahhh," Jane said, side-stepping a mysterious stain she'd yet to try removing from the carpet. "Sorry this place is such a pigsty—"

The words had barely left her mouth when Maura turned and almost lost her balance stepping on a pile of Legos.

"Ahhh!" Jane hissed, taking hold of Maura's arm and navigating her safely to the door. "Thank God you weren't barefoot, huh? You wouldn't have been able to walk anywhere." (Having never experienced or seen someone else experience the pain of stepping on a Lego with bare feet, Maura failed to grasp the seriousness of the remark.) "At least that's one mess I can sorta blame on my nephew – I told him to clean those up before we went outside. Guess I should've really made sure he did it, huh?"

As they walked back outside and downstairs, Maura observed, "You're very close, aren't you? You and TJ."

"Yeah, he's my little buddy," Jane chuckled. "We like to… _damn!_ Is this your car?" she asked as Maura unlocked a pitch black BMW.

"Excellent deductive reasoning," Maura teased her, getting in. "You'll make detective in no time." She didn't quite know what to make of Jane's gob-smacked reaction to the car as they got going. "Come along Jane, we are not a codfish!" she said, her tone light. "My mother used to say that whenever my jaw dropped at something."

There was a long pause before Jane said, "She's quoting _Mary Poppins_."

"What?"

"That's a _Mary Poppins_ quote."

"It must be a coincidence. My mother would never intentionally quote a Disney film."

"Too cool, huh?"

Maura laughed sourly. "Too cool, yes. That is a very apt way to describe my mother."

Jane glanced over and saw that Maura's grip had tightened on the steering wheel. Gleaning that follow-up questions about her mother would not be Maura's first choice of conversation, Jane mustered up a cheerful tone to ask, "What kinds of things would make your jaw drop like a codfish? Not cars, I guess."

Maura was fast appreciating how easy it was for Jane to make her laugh, even when she wasn't making a joke or trying to be funny. She had a congenial attitude about her that just made any space she inhabited all the more relaxed and friendly.

 _I hope she doesn't lose that_ joie de vivre _when she becomes more enmeshed in the world of BPD…_

"Hm, let's see. I suppose some of my biggest weaknesses when I was a kid were art museums. My mother is an artist, and she'd take me to visit museums constantly. I suppose she thought they required a certain sense of decorum, and rather than be glad that I was so struck by the beauty of a painting or sculpture that it caused my jaw to drop involuntarily, she would, ah, reprimand me. She never yelled or anything like that, but I definitely learned to restrain myself."

"Huh. That is such a bizarre idea to me," Jane said. "I mean, a totally foreign concept. My family's always been kinda loud…" She cleared her throat, again getting the impression that it would be best to change the subject. "So! Where are you taking me tonight, Dr. Isles?"

She was glad to see Maura's smile return. "Have you ever been to Pretzels and Brew?"

"That sounds familiar—I think I've passed it before, but never been inside."

"Well, that is option number one. Option number two is Chez Pierre."

"Tell me more about Pretzels and Brew."

"Well, it's a bar—but with a restaurant; it's not a dive," Maura said. "And they do trivia there on Friday nights. I've gone a couple of times with some forensic scientists I got in touch with once I moved here, and I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. Do you have any interest in going? We're sure to get a table if we go now for dinner; trivia doesn't start for a little over an hour."

"Sure," Jane blurted out, anxious for a casual night rather than embarrassing herself by mangling the pronunciations of any dishes at Chez Pierre. "I don't even need to hear more about option two, or any of the other options. Let's go to the Brew!"

"Pretzels and Brew it is," Maura chuckled.

What Maura did not mention was that trivia night had been a typical first or second date for her over about the last decade. She could see how competitive a person was, how gracious a loser or winner they were. She could judge their ability to converse between rounds; in the worst case scenarios, the trivia at least provided them something to do to break up any silences or awkwardness. It was also a game that humanized her: she never knew all the answers, making her less of a robot than some people anticipated. But what she found most interesting about trivia nights was the funny little tidbits they revealed about people. You could branch away from the typical early dating questions about families and careers and instead talk about why exactly you knew the location of the oldest military base in America (the Presidio in San Francisco), how you remembered the capital of Chile (Santiago), or which silent movie star's reputation was ruined by allegations of rape and murder at one of his parties (Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle). Sometimes the explanations were banal, but often there were stories and reminiscences tied to them, and Maura enjoyed getting to know people this way. It felt personable.

It didn't occur to Jane to worry until they'd already sat down and ordered some food. What if she made a total idiot of herself? What if she lost all the brainy cred she'd gotten from playing chess? What if she didn't know the answers to really basic general knowledge she might've picked up at a university? She'd never been to a trivia night before and had no idea what the questions might be like. This was a nice-looking place; they probably asked smart questions.

 _Relax. Relax! You'll know stuff. Just chill. Chill and enjoy the ambrosia burger or whatever the hell your order was called. Focus on Maura. Just make her laugh. If you don't know the answers, just make her laugh._

That had always been Tommy's credo – make the woman laugh. (He was careful to distinguish that she should laugh _with_ you, not _at_ you, after having been subjected to the latter far too many times.) Jane took it in stride.

She was realizing what a sloppy eater she was. The hamburger was messy, and kept toppings kept sliding off onto her plate. Maura had ordered a salad with seemingly countless components, yet she had no trouble keeping them balanced on her fork, and also seemed magically capable of timing her chewing so that her mouth was never full when it was her turn to speak. If she found Jane's table manners at all off-putting, though, she hid it very well.

"Do you mind candid conversation?" Maura asked after a while.

Jane's main point of reference for the word was Candid Camera, but she still figured she had a good enough idea what she was getting herself into when she said, "Go for it?"

"I'm sorry – your nephew just really fascinates me. I couldn't help wondering if he's tried setting you up with anyone before."

"Oh," Jane laughed. "Yeah, he did actually try earlier this year. He really wanted me to date his teacher. It was all Ms. Carpino this, Ms. Carpino that—Ms. Carpino is so smart, and so funny, and really nice."

"Sounds like a catch. Did you have any luck?"

"I did a little investigative work," Jane said. And, lest Maura think she had a habit of running background checks on any potential dates, she hastily added, "I asked Tommy about her. Apparently _Mrs._ Carpino is indeed very funny and nice, and happily married. Her husband is a gym teacher at the middle school."

"Ouch."

"Yeah, I guess kids his age don't always get the gist of ring-checking. Or distinguishing a Miss from a Mrs," Jane said with a smile. "So, I had a little chat with him after that. I called him my wingman and thanked him for looking out and all that, but I explained ring checks to him. That's kind of as far as I got. I didn't want to disillusion him yet by explaining that there are some women in the world who aren't even interested in dating other women." She cleared her throat. "Anyway, I hope he wasn't ever, uh, pushy with you."

"Not at all," Maura chuckled. "There was only one time where he mentioned rather pointedly that he had a _very_ cool aunt who worked at BPD who was smart, and funny, and nice."

"Boy needs to learn some new adjectives."

"I believe the word 'awesome' was also thrown in there somewhere."

"Sweet."

Jane asked for more details about how Maura was settling in at BPD, and "candid" discussion of the technicians on her staff kept them going until the trivia started. Maura had gotten up to retrieve a pen and pad from the reader, and she asked Jane what team name they ought to give themselves.

"Hm…our initials would be JM—if you say them together, they sound kinda like Jem. Jem and the Holograms?"

"What?"

"Jem and the—it was a TV show. Kinda before my time, but my cousins loved it and had taped a bunch of the episodes. We used to always watch it together when my family got to visit. It's about this woman named Jerrica who owns a music company, but she has this alter ego as a pop star named Jem, which she gets thanks to a holographic computer which her father bequeathed to her when he died, and…" She realized Maura was looking at her like she'd just started speaking in tongues. "Uh, never mind. Do you have any ideas? Something dignified?"

"It doesn't need to be dignified. It _shouldn't_ be dignified. We're playing bar trivia."

"Ponytails of Righteous Justice."

"What?" Maura laughed.

"That's what a friend of mine at the precinct likes to call my ponytail sometimes," Jane said. "Just a joke. But I thought of it when I saw you get out of the elevator earlier this week with your hair up and uh … that dress and all." She grinned when she saw Maura write _Ponytails of Righteous Justice_ at the top of the sheet.

The first round did not bode particularly well for them – they missed half the questions (neither of them knew much about midwestern ice hockey players, '90s boy bands aside from Channel Street Boys, or 1980s arcade games). They talked about Maura's impeccable penmanship and Jane's childhood fascination with dinosaurs that had led to her knowing the answer to the final question about velociraptors.

"I bet a lot of people knew that one, though, 'cause of _Jurassic Park_ ," Jane said, as they waited for the next round to start. "Do you dig movies like that, or do the scientific inaccuracies bother you?"

"I read Crighton's book when it came out," Maura said (and Jane chose not to disclose the fact that she'd never known it was a book). "It was a fascinating concept for a compelling science-fiction story. Entirely implausible, of course, and it presented enough differing points of view as to be politically innocuous. I do wish Spielberg as a little more conscious of his responsibility as a filmmaker in general, though."

"In…what way?"

"Oh, he can be so sentimental in his subjects—but it's not just that. I think it's very important for filmmakers to be socially conscious, and be aware of the the power of their chosen medium and how it affects viewers on a subconscious level."

Jane had never really considered movies to be in any way political or socially conscious unless they were explicitly about politics or the Civil Rights movement or something. "So what, you think stuff like _Jurassic Park_ irresponsibly encouraged viewers to want to breed dinosaurs?" she joked.

"No. Like I said, I don't take issue with _Jurassic_ Park. But look at something like _Jaws_. Do you know how many millions of sharks have been killed around the world based on nothing but the pure hysteria that movie created?"

"Uh…no…"

She wanted to ask if Maura really thought people's reactions were the fault of the filmmaker, but a (welcome) change of subject came along when the trivia reader asked a player from each team to collect a card for Round 2. There were eight pictures they had to identify, and Jane was glad to see they were being asked to ID dog breeds. While some types were fairly recognizable, a few were more obscure, but Jane knew them all.

"Are you sure that isn't a Maltese?" Maura asked, pointing to the dog in box 7.

"It's a Shih Tzu, trust me," Jane said. "One of our neighbors had one when we were growing up, and my brothers and I loved asking about it because we almost got to swear. 'Hey, Mrs. Fazzino, how's your _shih t_ zu? Need anyone to watch your _shih t_ zu while you're out of town? Can we take the _shih t_ zu to the park?" she laughed as Maura did the same. "Drove our mother nuts. Even when we got a little older, like when my brothers were in high school, they used to say stuff like 'you little piece of shih tzu!"

They decided to go double or nothing for the round, launching them into second place. "You're quite the canine expert!" Maura observed.

"Yeah, I wanted a dog real bad when I was a kid. We all did. We begged and begged our parents to let us get one, but my Ma insisted it was too much work and that she'd inevitably end up taking care of it all the time. She didn't think we'd pitch in for the hard work stuff. One year, for maybe my 9th or 10th birthday, my dad got me a dog encyclopedia with hundreds of photos in it. I must've read it cover-to-cover, like, a thousand times. The binding wore out, and Ma finally caved when I was thirteen. We got a boxer, named him Bailey, and…he died just a couple years ago."

"Oh, I'm sorry."

"S'okay, it was ole Bailey's time. He was a good boy, though. Y'know Korsak, down at the precinct?"

"Yes. He's a real animal lover, isn't he?"

"You could say that again," Jane chuckled. "He's always trying to get people to foster animals he finds. Last year he foisted a little mutt on me, called her Jo Friday. She was real cute, and a sweetie, but my schedule's not really conducive to owning a dog at the moment. A girl across the hall would take her for walks, but Jo needed company, y'know? Wasn't good for her—or my place, frankly—for her to be cooped up all day. She found a forever home right quick, though."

"I really like the concept of fostering animals, and I'm glad people do it, but I don't think I could," Maura said. "I'd get too attached! Was it hard to lose her?"

"I was a little sad, yeah." She laughed. "But Korsak fixed me up a few months later with an orange tabby, and Pippi's still with me."

"Like Pippi Longstocking?" Maura asked, smiling.

"Yep! Exactly. Might not be the most original name for an orange pet, but I dunno, it suits her. She can be a little shy of strangers, which is why you didn't meet her tonight. I hope you will soon, though."

The rest of the evening passed by pleasantly and all too quickly.

They managed to come in fourth place at trivia, having maintained a steady lead until the final round asked them to match American Idol winners with their most popular singles. Prior to that, though, Jane had impressed Maura with random bits of knowledge she had accrued after years of watching Jeopardy with her grandmother, and Jane was likewise impressed with the berth of Maura's knowledge beyond the realm of science and anthropology. Normally Jane's ultra-competitive spirit would've manifested itself in an ugly way at losing, but the pleasure of Maura's company was a peerless salve for any wounded ego.

Maura was playing footsie with her under the table. Jane practically yelped to get their waitress's attention for the check.

They split the bill and were shortly on their way back to Jane's apartment. Conversation was easy and Jane liked how she felt around Maura – for the most part. While it was reassuring to know that someone as intelligent as Maura could still enjoy a simple night out as much as any regular person, she could often be counted upon to flex an intimidating vocabulary and espouse ideas Jane had never considered, let alone encountered. Even in recent years that might've cowed her, but she had begun to cultivate a confidence in her self-worth after high school that was not easily shaken.

Still, she couldn't help wondering whether Maura wound find her intellectually stimulating enough; answering trivia questions didn't require much depth. But maybe she was over-thinking it – or rather, complicating things that didn't need to be complicated yet. The key thing at the moment was that there was still a very potent physical attraction burning between them, just as strongly as before.

When Maura pulled up to the apartment, Jane asked, "Would you like to uh, come up?"

Maura pretended she had to consider it. "Well, I didn't get to meet your cat when I was here earlier…"

Jane couldn't think of a better pretense.


	5. Chapter 5

Ever since she'd been old enough to get her own place, one of Jane's recurring fantasies had involved fumbling to open the door while a beautiful woman kissed her like it was her last night on earth. She could hardly believe that right here, right now, Maura Isles was making that dream become a reality.

As soon as they were inside, the keys fell from Jane's hand and Maura pressed her against the door. They stumbled towards the couch (Jane wasn't sure she could stand waiting to make it to the bedroom) – but the ferocity of their activity came to an abrupt halt when Maura accidentally sat on an animal. Pippi screeched and bolted from the sofa.

"Oh, no!" Maura said as Jane couldn't help laughing. "Do you think I hurt her?"

"Nah, you just startled her," Jane chuckled. "She's fine."

But Maura dodged when Jane tried to kiss her again. "But I put my full weight on her, and you were on top of me, so there was some of your weight, too—"

"Cats are resilient, Maura. She's got nine lives, anyway!" When this was met only with silence, Jane squinted in the darkness and said, "Are you mentally undressing me, or are you not going to be able to resume anything until you've been assured that Pippi is okay?"

"The latter."

"All right," Jane sighed, heaving herself up. She flipped on the light. "You did say you wanted to meet her, I guess. Here, kitty, kitty, kitty…" Jane walked back into her bedroom, got down on the floor, and shone the flashlight on her phone under the bed. Sure enough, two marble-like eyes glinted back at her from the farthest corner. "As I suspected." She raised her voice to call, "Hey, Maur—AH!"

She was caught off guard to twist around and see that Maura was lying on her stomach next to her, looking under the bed with a sweet expression of concern on her face. "I admit I'm not much of an expert on felines, but this sort of behavior would indicate that she's frightened, wouldn't it?"

"Eh, cats kinda like to hang out in dark, isolated places sometimes. That's kinda the gist I got from Korsak, anyway; they're not as social as dogs. She lives under here whenever TJ comes over. It's nothing to get worked up about."

But Maura still looked worried, and a little guilty. Refraining from even trying to think of a good (or bad) pun about pussy, Jane just stood up and returned a few moments later with a can of tuna. Soon enough she was able to coax Pippi out from under the bed and feed her a little of it.

"There, see? No harm done," she said, handing the can to Maura. The doctor was visibly relieved when Pippi was willing to take food from her, showing no sign of physical or emotional trauma. "What'd I tell ya?" Jane asked, as Maura tested her luck by scratching behind Pippi's ears. "You just—or rather, _we_ just—gave her a good startle, that's all. The phrase 'scaredy-cat' exists for a reason, y'know! Although to be fair, I probably would've yelped too if I was just sitting somewhere, minding my own business, and two people started trying to make out on top of me." Feeling bolstered by Maura's laughter, she added, "Come to think of it, that _did_ happen to me a couple times when I was in middle school, right after my BFF got her first boyfriend. Lots of fun three-wheeling. They'd just sit right on me and not even know it."

Maura cracked up at the mental image, and Jane was elated to be the cause of her joy.

"That does not sound fun."

"Yeah, it sucked. I'd have run away and hid under a bed, too, if I could've."

They chuckled over that, then lapsed into another silence as Maura continued to pet Pippi. But a within a few moments, the cat stood up and walked under the edge of the bed, purring.

"Ah, don't mind her," Jane said. "She's just bein' coy, now. I get the impression that's just in the nature of most cats."

Assuaged and convinced that she hadn't permanently distressed Jane's pet, Maura turned towards her and tugged a little at the collar of Jane's sweater. "Fortunately for both of us, being coy has never been in my nature."

It seemed that Jane could be easily flustered at work or even out on a date, but in her own home, she felt more encouraged and in control. It was true what Maura had said earlier that week: people are attracted to people who are attracted to them. Safely within the confines of her apartment, without the attention of anyone besides the woman who so clearly desired her, Jane felt like she could do no wrong. She'd worried that stopping to check on Pippi might've nullified any chance of action that night, but with just one look, Maura had made Jane's temperature skyrocket in the most delicious way yet again.

"Tell me what you want," Jane murmured, shifting her position and moving closer to Maura, their foreheads almost touching.

"Mmm…I want more of your voice in my ear, for one thing," Maura whispered. She ducked her head for a kiss, then another, before brushing her lips against Jane's cheek. "Your voice is so sexy, do you know that?"

It killed Jane to be fully aware of the fact that she was so turned on, it was preventing her from being able to come up with a good reply—or even reply at all. She'd been left with such an obvious cue to say something really hot, but her mind was a complete blank, scorched anew when Maura went in for another kiss.

But before Jane could do much to reciprocate, Maura pulled back. Her hand still rested on Jane's neck, her thumb brushing Jane's cheek in a manner that felt more emotionally than physically intimate somehow.

"There's just one thing," Maura said. "I'm not much of an exhibitionist." She nodded towards the bed. "I feel like she's watching us."

Jane looked, and saw Pippi still lying down, paws tucked beneath her, at the edge of the bed. Having accepted the fact that nobody was going to crawl over and play with her, she now seemed content to just sit there and vaguely stare in their direction.

"Right—no one likes a peeping Tom-cat, Pippi," Jane said. She turned back to Maura. "Couch?"

Maura flicked a cat hair off her sleeve. "I'm going to wash my hands in that bathroom behind you, and then I want to take you on your kitchen counter."

As Maura washed her hands, Jane snatched a catnip-filled toy from one of her drawers and tossed it to Pippi. Maura met her in the kitchen a few moments later, where Jane had just haphazardly thrown some dishes from breakfast into the dishwasher. "Ah, forgot the mess," she muttered. "Would you prefer the lights off so you want have to look at it all?" It sounded like she was only half-joking.

"If all goes well, I'm confident you'll be able to distract me from paying attention to it," Maura replied. "And besides, I want to be able to see you."

In a purposefully over-the-top gesture, Jane swept some empty plastic cups and her dish soap bottle into the sink and jumped onto the counter. She pulled Maura into a kiss, wrapping her legs around her waist. Everything happened so fast that she could barely keep track – her pants got unzipped and the button deftly undone, her lips only leaving Maura's when Maura's hand made contact, and Jane's head banged against one of the cupboards. Her lips were nowhere near Maura's ear, but Maura was still easily able to hear every half-articulated word Jane could manage to gasp out.

She didn't register any pain, but afterwards, Jane did note that she was feeling some physical discomfort and wasn't sure she'd like to do this on the counter again. She was pretty sure she'd had to do some contorting to feel Maura the way she wanted to. But maybe if they switched positions…

Just the thought of it was making her feel hot again; she was ready to go, but Maura's hands (now washed again) were on Jane's hips, edging her off the counter. Jane felt a little unsteady on shaky legs, but Maura was there to ground her with a kiss. Jane responded in earnest, her hands rising into Maura's hair as she walked them over to the fridge, the nearest flat surface she could push and hold Maura against.

She thrust her leg between Maura's, her hands moving down to un-tuck Maura's top from her skirt. Maura moaned softly, her head rolling to the side. She loved the sureness of Jane's touch – it was confident without being possessive, respectful without being too hesitant. She felt feverish as Jane's fingers brushed against her stomach. With a nod, she encouraged Jane to unbutton the top.

Jane's eyes drank in the sight of Maura's breasts where they swelled over her bra. It was beige in color, and Jane quickly found herself in the unenviable position of thinking about about her mother – or rather, thinking of a shopping trip with her mother when she'd been a freshman in high school and Angela had offered her unsolicited opinion that beige was the least sexy bra color (and thus threw several into their cart for Jane in hopes of discouraging the temptation to show them to anyone).

But damn. Beige was hot. Beige was hot as hell.

"You know you've seen those before," Maura teased her. "Codfish."

Jane abruptly shut her jaw, having no idea how long she'd been ogling in open-mouthed wonder. Remembering Maura's earlier request, Jane kissed her cheek and whispered in her ear, "Yeah, but _this_ is new to me." She hooked her finger around one bra strap for emphasis before moving it down Maura's arm. As she did this, she left a soft trail of kisses from Maura's cheek to her jaw to her neck. "Mmph … you're so gorgeous," she breathed.

"Jane." Maura's tone was clipped, impatient.

"Mm?"

One of Jane's hands palmed her breast, and an airy breath issued from Maura's lips; soft, feminine, light—a white-hot arrow that struck Jane in many places at once. When Maura spoke again, all curtness was gone: "Touch me."

To make what turned out to be a very short story even shorter: Jane did.

Ultimately they wound up half-dressed on the floor, which Jane was at least glad to know was relatively clean. (After spotting two roaches there the first month in her apartment, she had become obsessive about keeping the kitchen floor clean and hadn't had any trouble since.)

"Wow," she said, all but gasping for breath as Maura lay partially draped over her. "I thought this kind of thing only happened in movies."

"What kind of thing?"

"Uh…sweaty kitchen floor sex?"

Maura laughed, kissing Jane's neck. She moved to straddle her. "Would you like me to kiss the sweat from your thighs?"

She had assumed it would be a rhetorical question, and was already kissing a line past Jane's bra and down her stomach, but Jane tensed and said, "No, please, no."

Maura glanced up, glad to at least see that Jane was still smiling. She shifted back up to lay by her side. "You all right?"

Jane nodded and gave a short laugh, still breathing heavily. "Fine, yeah, more than fine. I'm great. I'm just like, 110% sure that if you touch me again, I'm gonna explode."

"Hm, well _I'm_ 110% sure that sex has never caused a person to spontaneously combust—but point taken in hyperbole," Maura joked.

Jane reached over, brushing some hair out of Maura's face. "Oh, boy. You're really something else, Dr. Isles."

The formality reminded Maura of the discomfort Jane had seemed to exhibit at work the other day. She sat up, reaching for her discarded bra and slipping it back on. She smiled to herself when she felt Jane's nimble fingers clasping the hooks back together. There was a kiss to her shoulder, and then Jane was sitting up next to her, wearing a quiet smile.

There was something tender about the smile that Maura couldn't quite place, but she recognized it for what it wasn't: it wasn't uncomfortable, embarrassed, or cocky. Maybe a little bashful, but mostly it was content. She found herself brushing her thumb over Jane's lips before giving them one more kiss. And that made her feel something else she couldn't quite place, something else that felt novel. After being intimate with a new partner, Maura wasn't used to being, well, _this_ kind of intimate with them.

As they finished getting dressed, Jane asked, "Have you done this with a co-worker before? Is that, like, an … un…tactful thing to ask?"

"The word is 'tactless,'" Maura chuckled, standing up.

Jane groaned, getting to her feet as well. "Gah, I knew that. I just couldn't think of the word."

"Anyway, it's not a tactless question. I don't want you to think I've made a habit of it or anything, but no, you're not the first co-worker I've slept with." She shrugged. "I can understand why some workplaces have policies against those types of relations or relationships, but BPD doesn't, and I don't personally. The parties involved just need to be responsible and communicative."

"You make it sound like some kind of legal agreement," Jane said with an uneasy laugh.

Maura pursed her lips, self-conscious about her tendency to sound clinical in situations like this. She cleared her throat and tried to move past it. "This is new territory for you, isn't it?"

"Kinda," Jane said, grinning and rubbing the back of her neck. "In more ways than one. I mean, like I told you before, I usually don't just jump into stuff like this. When I asked you out, I kinda was expecting to go on a few real dates before we really did anything, but here we are. Not that I regret it," she hastened to add, "I just wasn't prepared!"

"I see. Well, here's what I'd recommend based on where I'm standing. You have a gorgeous body, Jane."

"What? Shut up. Thanks. You do."

Maura smiled. "And a beautiful mind, too. I'd love to explore them both more, and I get the impression that the feeling is mutual. I'm tied up this weekend, but would you like to go out again sometime next week?"

"Yeah, for sure."

"Wonderful, me too. And just because our last two dates have ended with sex doesn't mean they all have to. It's important to me that you know that." Jane nodded, looking more relaxed, and Maura went on: "And at work? I see no reason why we can't just carry on as we usually do—if not a little more familiarly. Don't be a stranger, and please don't feel uncomfortable, especially on my behalf."

Maura seemed very calm, and that helped Jane feel much more at ease about work. "Cool, sounds like a plan. I'll, uh, see you next week, then! Have a good weekend."

"Thanks, you too." Maura paused with her hand on the doorknob, then turned and smiled at Jane. "I had a really wonderful night. Thank you."

"Pleasure was all mine."

As soon as Maura was gone, Jane doffed the clothes she'd bothered to put back on and jumped into a very cold shower. This all still felt so surreal. Was this real life, or was it just fantasy? Working her way through the rest of the lyrics of "Bohemian Rhapsody" allowed her to get through her shower without wasting too much water by distracting herself and prolonging it with something else. She ran a towel through her hair but let it remain damp, throwing on a tank and shorts before getting into bed.

Once she settled in, Pippi jumped onto the bed. "Hey, girl," Jane murmured, scratching her behind the ears. "How about that Maura Isles, huh? Is she amazing, or what?"

She lay down and flipped off the lights. Pippi curled up next to her side, and Jane absent-mindedly stroked her as Maura continued to consume her thoughts. At this point, Tommy was the only person who knew they'd had a date, and Jane wanted to keep it that way as long as possible. Tommy was the least judgmental person he knew, and while on occasion he was known to have a big mouth, he'd keep his word not to talk if you asked him to. Jane could only imagine that Angela would be less than pleased to hear her baby girl was dating someone eleven years her senior. It was too easy to picture Maura innocently walking into the Division One Café and getting harassed by one of its workers about robbing the cradle.

Of course Jane loved her family and was glad to be living near them… most of the time. She could never seriously entertain the thought of moving away from Boston, what's more. It was her home and would always be her home. Sometimes, though, she fantasized about how nice it must to be have been one of those kids who moved away, setting up a life for themselves without the daily scrutiny of their parents. Even if they only moved one state away – one county away! – they were that much farther from having their every action evaluated and commented on by their helicopter mothers.

 _That must be nice._

If she were perfectly honest with herself, though, it was a little intimidating seeing someone who had over a decade more of experience than she did. Ever since the first time she'd kissed a girl (a high school senior when Jane was a sophomore), she'd not been shy of dating older women – although typically, the gap was only by a few years.

She was wary of doing or saying something spectacularly immature and turning Maura off. Airing her insecurities might only serve to highlight her inexperience, but she hoped that being honest and open would lead to the sort of communication Maura had been talking about.

After waiting until she thought it was likely Maura had gotten home, Jane shot her a text: _Hey, I hope you don't feel like I pushed you out of here._

It took an agonizingly long time for a response to come, but when it finally did, Maura explained: _**Sorry, I would have responded sooner, but I had to take a very long shower!**_ (She decided the charitable thing to do was to let Jane interpret that as she'd like.) _**I don't feel like I was pushed out at all, and I hope you don't think I rushed away.**_

 _Oh good, no worries! What are your weekend plans?_

 _ **I'm going to New York for a WAWFE Conference. I've been asked to be a panelist for a discussion on Forensic Ballistics and GSR Analysis**_ , _**and then I'll be attending the other lectures and panels just as a curious guest.**_

Jane was sure she'd heard GSR before (later it came to her – gun shot residue), but asked, _What's WAWFE? I must be tired, because the first thing I thought of was WWE, but I doubt you're off for a conference of wrestling._

Maura laughed, sliding into bed before responding. _**It stands for the Worldwide Association of Women Forensic Experts. A bit of a mouthful**_.

 _Wow, that's so cool! Good for you. I'd wish you luck, but I'm sure you don't need it!_

 _ **Thank you**_ _._ She was about to end the conversation there and bid Jane goodnight, but then added, _**Maybe you should wish me luck. If my ride home was any indication (I made two wrong turns), I may have a hard time concentrating this weekend because I'll be thinking of tonight… and my birthday.**_

Again Jane felt like that was her cue, and again she felt completely at a loss for words. Every response she tapped out sounded cheesy or stupid or lame or all three. Finally, feeling the pressure of time more than anything else, she wrote, _You know how we are at BPD – protect, serve, improve the quality of life. All in a night's work ;)_

 ** _Thank you for your selfless service, officer._**

 _Oh, it's not at all selfless…but any time!_

 ** _Careful, I might take up on that._**

 _You better._


	6. Chapter 6

_**A/N** : Hey, all! Thanks for reading. Some of you have asked about the need for an age difference in this story - and I guess the only thing I can think to say is that it came to me kind of abruptly when I was writing that first chapter/tumblr prompt. I wanted a canon setting, but something different, and an age difference (that didn't involve a student/teacher relationship) came to mind. I think it'll be interesting to tease out how that affects their dynamic, especially in terms of their class and interests. In the meantime, I'm really enjoying writing this. Thank you for reading!_

* * *

Jane agonized all Saturday about whether she should text Maura. Would it be too clingy, too much? Was Maura the type of person who'd rather be left alone at a conference, who'd consider a text an annoyance? It seemed stupid to fret over this, but every time Jane started to write a message, she worried about how it would look if Maura didn't reply. She didn't want to seem desperate for attention—and she wasn't, really; she genuinely was curious about how the day was going for Maura.

By 9:30 that night, her desire to establish communication finally beat out her concerns. After fumbling her way through several versions, she was sure Maura would receive the message she finally sent in the spirit with which it was intended:

 _Hey, Maura! Just wanted to check in and see how the conference is going :) I've put off asking about it because I didn't want to interrupt any of the scientific goings-on. Hope you're having a nice time, even if you ARE in the world's most garbage city._

Immediately after she sent it, Jane started to get nervous again. At this hour the conference was sure to be adjourned for the day, but what if Maura was out partying with the forensic experts in Manhattan? Was she tired, already in bed?

But Maura responded almost right away, and Jane could've sworn her heart literally swelled when she read, _**Jane! I've been hoping I'd hear from you.**_

Her grin felt too wide for her face. _Oh, yeah? Why didn't you text me first, then? I thought you said it wasn't in your nature to be coy_ _:p_

 _ **It's been crazy here, and I wasn't sure if you were working today. The conference is fantastic. Are you home? Can you call me?**_ Jane was about to inquire further, but then Maura added, _**I'd really like to hear that sexy voice of yours**_.

Jane didn't hesitate to call, and when Maura picked up, she greeted her with the huskiest, sultriest voice she could muster. Maura laughed, "Oh, it's better than I remembered! Say something else, Jane!"

There was something a little off about Maura's voice. She sounded bubbly, and was speaking louder than she needed to be. "Um. Maura, have you been … uh, drinking?"

A short pause preceded Maura's reply: "Keep this up and you'll make detective in no time, Jane! There was a banquet at the end of the night, and they had an open bar. Socializing can be very exhausting for me when I'm at an event alone, and the bartender was very nice, and there you uh, there you are. I'm not drunk, though. Just a li'l tipsy."

"Uh- _huh_ …you're not still at this banquet, are you?"

"No, I'm back in my room. I was getting hit on by a professor from Columbia and I wasn't in the mood. I'd left my phone here and I came back up to see if you'd texted me, and then a little while later, you did! So thank you."

"You're wel—"

"But what've you got against Tarrytown? A town and not a city, by the way."

"Huh?"

"Your text said I was in a garbage city. I'm in Tarrytown, and it's quite lovely here."

"I thought you said the conference was in New York."

Maura sounded exasperated. "It is! New York _state_ , not New York _City_. It's the last exit before the Tappan Zee Bridge. Tappan Zee—isn't that fun to say? I'm sure it must be a Native American word and I'm sure I've looked it up, but I can't remember what it means. If anything. Anyway, Sleepy Hollow, Tarrytown, yes. Quaint spot. But what've you got against New York? It's my favorite city in the world. And that actually means something because I've been to six continents, lived in three, and visited many, many cities."

"Ugh, and New York is your _favorite_?" Jane groaned. "I don't know if I can go on another date with you."

"You shut your gorgeous mouth!" Maura said. "I don't…let's stop."

"Stop?"

"Change the subject. Was there a particular reason you called?"

"Well, you asked me to," Jane chuckled.

"Oh! So I did."

"How'd your panel go?"

"Very well, thank you. It was received with a fair amount of enthusiasm, which is always nice. It's nice to be around like-minded people for a change. Cops are usually much less interested in the, um, the minutia than I'd like. It's all…" (She hiccupped but didn't acknowledge it, and Jane smiled to herself.) "It's all brass. Brass tacks, I mean. And I understand that when you're working on a hot case, you don't have time for extraneous details, but… what was your best subject in school, Jane?"

Not sure where this was going, Jane said, "Uh, gym? Ha, ha. I was actually a good student, but I guess my best academic class was English. Then Spanish. But I've lost a lot of it—the Spanish, I mean. The English is still in there for the most part." She chuckled when Maura let out a rather un-dignified snort of a laugh at that one. "What about you?"

"Well, I was excellent at all my subjects," Maura said, with a tone of bluntness rather than pride. "But my favorites were math and the sciences. You know why? Because there was no multiple choice. Well there _was_ , but you had to show your work to get full credit. That's important to me. You get to show your whole process, and it's evaluated and appreciated. Except in certain circumstances, cops don't want the process. They just want the multiple choice answer. Medical examiners are unsung as it and—I don't want or need public attention, or praise or what have you, but I don't always feel appreciated at work. And that'd be nice."

She suddenly sounded very sad. Jane asked, "Are you experiencing serious job dissatisfaction?"

But Maura was quick to say, "Oh, no! I love my job. I love BPD, too. And I get to talk about the process with my techs—although Susie's the only one I can really get to engage with me. I think the others are intimidated by my seniority; I don't know. I dunno."

Jane had heard Detective Crowe refer to Maura as "Queen of the Dead." She'd assumed it was some kind of inside joke, maybe a nickname. But considering the source, maybe Maura hadn't been in on it. "Um, what's your manner like at work? Are you approachable to your, uh, underlings?"

Maura laughed as if it was the funniest thing she'd ever heard. "Underlings! What a word. You're funny, Jane. I like that about you. Tell me something else."

"Something else funny?"

"Anything."

"Hm…well, I guess I could tell you I'm sorry I'm probably not intelligent enough to keep up with your M.E. processes, but cops like to be methodical too, just in diff—"

Maura laughed again, but not unkindly. "Yes, officers. I've been acquainted with your methodical process and am quite a big fan of your work. Especially the work we accomplished against your refrigerator last night."

Jane barely contained a laugh. "Damn, Dr. Isles! You really know how to make a girl blush."

"Are you blushing right now?" Maura asked, her voice pitched purposefully low. "I really love making you blush."

"You do?"

"Yes. Is that cruel of me?"

Jane bit her lip, her left hand wandering past her waistband. "No. Tell me what else you love."

"I love…your voice, your hair, your humor, your uniform. I love…" Another hiccup, and Jane thought she heard the sound of a door closing. "Glazed donuts…"

"Uh, what?"

It turned out "glazed donuts" was said in an attempt to throw Maura's roommate off the track, but it didn't entirely work. Another voice came through the line loud and clear from Maura's room: "Dr. Isles! You're not doing anything _improper_ on the phone, are you?!"

"You have a roommate?" Jane asked, immediately withdrawing her hand.

"Not by choice. Nothing against you, Mildred," Maura said, raising her voice a little. "The hotel's pretty full; I suppose people want to make their way up the coast for autumn leaves. Mildred is a medical examiner from Connecticut—been in the business quite a while."

Maura yawned, and Jane said, "Perhaps I ought to let you go. You'll want your rest so you can party it up tomorrow! End that conference on a high note."

"Ha! Yes, certainly."

"I hope they give you a good breakfast over there in Tarrytown. Maybe you'll get some of those glazed donuts."

"That would certainly be a nice surprise," Maura laughed. "But I'm not gonna hold my breath."

Indeed, the next morning Maura texted Jane a picture of stale melon (the only food she dared eat at the hotel) with a frowny face. When she got back to work on Monday, it was to see a bag with two glazed donuts waiting for her on her desk. Attached to it was a note from Jane:

 _Hi there! Hope you had a great Sunday at the conference. I hope you enjoy these donuts, they're from the best shop in town. I should know, I'm a police officer :) Hope I see you around today. – J_

That wound up being sooner than either of them anticipated, when Maura went down to the evidence garage to deliver a report to a rather impatient Detective Crowe, who yanked the folder from Maura's hands before she could even finish saying his name.

"I was told to bring this directly to you once the DNA analysis came through," she said, trying to keep her tone professional but unable to keep sourness from making its way in. "I'd have been here sooner, but I guess you're so invested in being on top of things that by the time I made it to your desk, I'd been informed you were working down here." She glanced at at a uniformed pair of legs sticking out from beneath the old Chevy Crowe was standing next to. "Or _supervising_ work down here, as it would seem."

She finally looked at him and it registered that he hadn't been listening to a word she was saying. His eyes were zooming along the file, searching for recognizable words or names.

"So it wasn't Mason's blood?"

"No, it was not."

"Who the hell's was it, then?"

Maura stared at him a moment, then traced her finger down the first file in the paper until she reached the name: "Erin Weaver's."

"Who the hell's she?"

"That's where we get into your area of expertise, detective, not mine."

The person beneath the car spoke: "Could you pass me a monkey wrench?"

Still glaring at the file, Crowe blindly groped for the wrench in a nearby toolbox. He held it limply by his wrist, and when Maura realized he wasn't going to do anything else, she rolled her eyes and took it from him. He didn't seem to notice, and she passed it down to the outstretched hand poking out from under the car. "Thanks!"

"You're welcome," Maura said, straightening up. "Well, Detective Crowe, I can see I'm going to be of no further use to you at the moment, so I'm going to do us both a favor and leave."

When she actually turned to walk away, Crowe said, "Hm? Oh. Hey, where'd that monkey wrench go?"

Barely repressing a sigh, Maura turned again to say, "I gave it to your co-worker."

Crowe grinned, then hooked his foot around his co-worker's shoe and yanked them out from under the car in one smooth motion (eliciting a yelp in the process). "Hey, grease monkey!" he said. "Why don't you correct our fine Queen of the Dead, here, and explain that you haven't quite earned your way up to co-worker status with the big boys yet."

There'd been a louder-than-ordinary clunking sound when he dragged the underling out from under the car, and Maura was surprised to see Jane getting to her feet with a bloody nose and a muffler in her hands.

"Jane!"

"Maura, hi!" she said, inhaling to try and keep more blood from gushing out of her nose. "Uh—wow, hello. You look nice."

"You're bleeding."

"Yeah, well, wouldn't you know it," Jane said, dropping the muffler on a nearby table and shooting Crowe a dark look. "Tugging someone out from under a car when they're trying to remove a large part of it is not a super safe workplace practice."

"Aw, what, gonna cry about a bloody nose now?" Crowe sneered. "They shouldn't have sent me a skinny greaseball dyke to do a man's job."

Maura made no attempt to restrain her shock at Crowe's crassness. Jane merely continued to glower at him as she said, "Not gonna cry, but now that I've done your dirty job for you, I _am_ gonna go clean up."

When Jane reached to wipe at her nose with the filthy sleeve of the mechanic's uniform she'd put on, Maura looked only slightly less horrified than she had been by Crowe's remark. She took hold of Jane's elbow and said, "Let me help you with that, officer."

Jane allowed herself to be taken along to the morgue, where Maura filled a dish with water, grabbed a clean towel and a lab coat, and proceeded into her office with Jane behind her. Jane took the towel and tried to soak up as much of the blood as she could – and also attempted to come up with something to say that wasn't related to the rather embarrassing circumstance(s) Maura had just found her in. But she waited too long, and Maura jumped in first.

"I'm a little embarrassed I didn't recognize your voice from down there," she said, putting on the lab coat and buttoning it up. "It _was_ rather loud in the garage, though, and I guess it wasn't really in my head as a possibility that I'd run into you."

"Yeah," Jane scoffed, trying not to wince as she touched her nose. "I don't know how long it's gonna take for people to stop looking at me as the new kid on the block, but I guess I gotta get put through my paces, y'know? Crowe likes to pick on me, and that means I get to do fun odd jobs for him."

"I'd gotten the impression before that he was rude, but I underestimated how much of an asshole he is," Maura said. "You're going to report him, aren't you?"

"For what? Oh, you mean the … the dyke thing," she said flatly.

"Yes, that! You sound very calm about it!"

"Maura," Jane sighed. "Yeah, he's an ass-hat. And I don't love that he used that word. But I'm not gonna _report_ it!"

"You're just going to let him get away with it? Does he talk to you like this all the time?"

"No, not all the time. Look Maura, I get where you're coming from. But you work down here, you—you're basically in another world! There's not a ton of other women upstairs, and I dunno, I just don't think it'd be the best thing for my career here to rock the boat and tattle on the guy."

" _Tattle?_ You think this is tattling? No, don't," she said, pointing at Jane when Jane opened her mouth to reply. "Don't diminish your self-worth, don't underestimate your value by likening this to playground politics. Crowe might have a higher ranking than you, but that doesn't give him the right to use slurs like that in the workplace. It's reprehensible. It clearly says something about his attitude if he not only felt comfortable using it to your face, but in front of me, as well. He doesn't know me; he's not putting me through my paces. He obviously doesn't see the issue with it, or expects us both to be fine with it!"

Jane winced again, trying to find a place on the towel that wasn't bloodied. "I'm not saying it wasn't a gross thing for him to do," she said, "I'm just saying that reporting it is the kind of thing that could make it hard for me to get ahead here."

"Jane, this isn't the '70s! You shouldn't have to worry about those sorts of things!"

"You're right, I shouldn't have to, but I do! Would I like to see Crowe chewed out for being a douchebag? Yes, I would love it. It's one of my routine revenge fantasies. But that's just it, it's a _fantasy_ at this point. If I try to make it a reality, word's just gonna get around that I'm hard to work with, that I'm a bitch with a stick up my ass, and I don't wanna get frozen out for making a big stink about an offhand comment!"

"Okay, but don't you see that your continued silence makes you compliant with creating the kind of atmosphere that allows Crowe to make you feel like you're not supposed to be here? You're protected by law! Massachusetts was just the second state to pass comprehensive anti-discrimination laws which encompass prohibiting that sort of harassment. Thinly-veiled misogyny is one thing, but overtly—"

"Please, Maura," Jane said. "Just let me handle it."

"And you'll handle it by not doing anything at all?"

Jane made some kind of impatient noise, recognizing that Maura was offended on her behalf but not coming at the situation in the proper context. "If you're gonna mother me, can't you at least come at it like moms do? Words will never hurt me, right? Sticks and stones—and mufflers, on the other hand…" She tapped her nose and winced again.

"That brute," Maura muttered, taking Jane's face in her hands with a light touch. "Not only is he a sexist and homophobic creep, but he engages in unsafe workplace practices, too. He could have seriously hurt you."

"Don't suppose you could uh, pop this back into place, could you?" Jane asked. "Or do you only work on dead people?"

Maura tried not to grimace. "This'll hurt a little."

"Okay." Jane cried out in pain when Maura realigned the bone. "Gah! A _little?_ "

"You're going to want to keep ice on that as much as possible, or you're going to look like Mike Tyson."

"Nice sports reference," Jane chuckled. When Maura moved to step back, Jane gently took hold of her waist and kept her close. She stopped before allowing their bodies to fully come into contact, though, asking, "Hey, are you angry with me?"

Maura sighed, brushing some of Jane's hair away from her face. "I'm frustrated about your stance on Crowe, yes. And I'd also appreciate it if you would refrain from calling me a mother in the future."

"Right, sorry," Jane mumbled. "I don't want you to be upset with me, Maura. Crowe busts everyone's balls—or … ovaries, as the case may be, I guess. I can take it. I can let it roll off my back."

"I just don't want you to feel like you need to give in to fear in order to be accepted around here."

"Give in to fear? I'm not afraid of him!"

"Essentially, that's what it sounded like a minute ago," Maura said. "You're afraid of what everyone else will think of you if you stand up for yourself. I'm sorry if I wasn't sensitive; I can appreciate that asserting yourself in that kind of environment can be daunting—"

"I'm not—I'm not _afraid_ ," Jane said, and Maura saw that she'd struck a nerve. She could also see the wheels turning in Jane's head.

When Jane didn't say anything else, Maura went on, "As someone who's been in the game a little longer than you have, that's the advice I'd give you. I got harassed a lot when I was first starting out, and I let it happen. I got hit on all the time, persistently, even after I made it clear I wasn't interested—which, subconsciously, might be another reason why I didn't ask you out. I didn't want to make you uncomfortable. I fielded a fair share of inappropriate comments on the way, too. And I let it roll off my back for far too long. A handful of off-hand comments might not seem insurmountable on their own, but they start to pile up. It weighs on you, and I believe it affects the way you work."

"I feel okay," Jane said softly.

Maura matched her tone – patient, gentle. "Look at it this way. If Crowe thinks it's all right to use language like that towards you, someone he works with, how do you think he'll talk to a crime victim? Maybe he's just on a power trip, but it's more likely a reflection of his personal beliefs and ideology, which could rear up in an ugly way if, say, a lesbian was falsely accused of a crime, or if a lesbian otherwise needed his professional help."

Jane looked uncomfortable at the thought. "I never really considered that." She quickly recovered. "But I mean, realistically? What'll probably end up happening at best is that he'll have to retake a sensitivity training course, and he'll pay no attention to it like he obviously didn't the first time."

"Maybe," Maura said with a shrug. "But it's a step towards forcing him to respect you. You must be the change you wish to see in the world, Jane."

"Ha, right. FDR?"

"Gandhi."

"Ah, yeah. I was close."

"Not…really…" Maura said without a hint of amusement.

There was a brief silence during which Jane contemplated how best to respond to that, ultimately deciding to ignore it. Her hands were still resting on Maura's waist; she patted them slightly. "I guess like you said, maybe the reason co-workers are discouraged from sleeping together is because of how easily flirting could be called sexual harassment."

"Oh, that's undoubtedly one of the reasons," Maura said. "But you'll tell me the moment you don't want this, right?"

Jane grinned. "Yeah, but I don't anticipate that happening any time soon. I'd really like to pull you in proper right now, as a matter of fact, but I don't wanna get grease stains on your, uh…"

Maura leaned in, leaving a light kiss on Jane's lips. "I don't mind a little grease," she murmured. "In fact before I got distracted by Crowe's wild inappropriateness—"

"Mm, let's not talk about him anymore right now," Jane muttered, kissing her again. "Kills the mood."

Maura had to chuckle and acquiesce. If she was honest with herself, being back in Jane's arms like this was something she'd been looking forward to all weekend. It was nice to feel wanted. "All right then, I'll cut to the chase. Seeing you dressed as a mechanic is extremely arousing, and I would never have anticipated that."

"You have a thing for uniforms, don't you?" Jane laughed.

"I guess maybe I do. And on that note…" She tugged at Jane's hips, bringing her close against her. "I put on this lab coat to protect my dress." But she was a little too eager, and Jane pulled back in pain when Maura bumped her still-very-tender nose. "Oh, I'm sorry!" she said ruefully. "How embarrassing; I really need need to exercise some self-control. But you made your way into my head very quickly."

"Yeah? How's that?" Jane asked with a grin.

"Well…when I could bring myself to concentrate on the conference, I had a very enlightening time," Maura whispered. "I'd have had more fun there, I think, if a good friend of mine had been able to show up—this was the first conference in years that she had to miss. So I was mostly only my own, or talking to other people right after their lectures or panels _about_ their lectures or panels. My mind kept drifting back to you. I looked forward to coming back and seeing you. And you were so cute to bring me glazed donuts this morning!" she laughed. "Thank you so much."

"Ah, no big," Jane said, though she was very pleased by Maura's reaction.

Maura gave her a short kiss, making sure to be careful of Jane's nose. "I wanted to share them with you, since you got two, but Susie came in right when I'd picked one out of the bag for just a bite, and her face lit up, so…"

"Hey, don't worry about it! I gave you those to enjoy however you liked. I'm sure Susie appreciated it."

"And I'm sure you'd appreciate it if I left your nose alone."

"Mm, well, yes and no…" Jane answered. Maura chuckled, then left a series of light kisses down Jane's neck to her collarbone. Stiffening slightly, Jane said, "Would it be a turn-off at all if I pointed out that I _am_ wearing clothes under this? Did I ruin the illusion?"

"Ooh, the harsh light of reality," Maura teased her.

Jane let out a loud laugh. "Ha! Well, sorry about that. Aside from being somewhat inappropriate, I don't think it's something I'd want to do, given how unlikely it is that this thing's been washed recently…" She laughed again when Maura took a step back. "I'm sure it's totally fine, but I guess I should take that as my cue to leave, huh? Have you got ice down here, by any chance?"

"Yes, ask a tech for some on the way out," Maura said, noticing her reflection in a glass-protected painting over Jane's shoulder and seeing a grease smudge on her chin she'd rather not explain to anyone she might bump into before she could properly clean it off. "

"Okay. Um, wanna maybe do dinner tonight? I know a place that has great Chinese. They don't have trivia, but I think there's Karaoke on Wednesdays. So if you like the food _and_ you like Karaoke, we could go again later in the week!"

"If they do Karaoke on Wednesdays, I think we're safer sticking to tonight," Maura laughed. "Trust me, my singing voice is not pretty. I can't even sing to people on their birthdays; I'm off-key before I even finish 'happy'!"

"Aw, c'mon!" Jane snickered. "It can't be that bad."

"I've already told you I don't lie. So believe me when I say that I make Roseanne at the Super Bowl sound like Streisand."

Jane hadn't seen the moment in question live, but a YouTube video of the performance was her extended family's song of choice when it came to RickRolling each other. "Oh man, no way!" she said, pretending to recoil as Maura nodded. "Well dang, okay. We will be steering clear of Shanghai Joe's on Wednesday, then."

When she was about to walk out, Maura stopped her. "I hope, especially in light of getting so upset over Crowe's comment, that I haven't made you uncomfortable or overstepped, Jane."

"What? Of course not! Crowe's a creep who I'll seriously consider talking to the Sarge about, and you—well, you're really not a creep. I do remember you saying you wanted to wait a while before you did anything unseemly in the workplace," she said with a heavy wink, "but this is a mutual thing. You didn't overstep."

"Oh, good. Not that it's any excuse, but it _is_ my time of the month, and that usually makes it very easy for me to get aroused at the colloquial drop of a hat and… sorry," she said, noticing Jane's amused expression. "If that's not overstepping it might be over sharing."

"Don't sweat it," Jane chuckled. She leaned over to give Maura a kiss on the cheek before stepping out of the office to procure some ice.

Maura was disappointed but not terribly surprised when Jane texted her later in the day and asked if they could reschedule dinner (promising that if they had to wait till Wednesday, she'd suggest a place that was Karaoke-free). She didn't elaborate on the reason why she needed a rain check, assuming it would suffice in a text to explain that work stuff had come up.

And that really was fine, until Maura was settling down at home later that night with a glass of wine and the newest issue of _National Geographic_. The thought suddenly came to her that maybe Jane had been put off by the discussion of her period. But that was silly, wasn't it? Of course it was.

Then, as if summoned by Maura's thoughts, Jane texted her: _Hey! Sorry I know it's kind of late, but do you have a few minutes to spare by any chance?_

Maura replied instantly: _**Get over here right now**_.

She was startled when there was a knock on her door, mere seconds later. It seemed that text had only been a mere formality.

Jane was standing on the doorstep in a blue plumber's uniform, complete with tool belt and some artfully-applied eye black made to mimic greasy smudges on her face. "Drop of a hat, you said, right?" Jane chuckled, twisting her matching blue cap backwards.

"Oh, you're keeping that hat on."

"Can do, Miss. Sorry the uniform's a bit dirty, but I haven't got a thing on under it."

"You misled me."

Maura was smiling, so Jane wasn't too concerned when she said, "What's that now?"

"You asked if I only had a few minutes to spare." Maura grabbed a fistful of Jane's uniform and all but yanked her inside. "I don't care how many appointments I make you miss; you are _not_ getting out of here that quickly."


	7. Chapter 7

Maura wasn't usually one for pillow talk. Often it seemed to be employed as an attempt to off-set what she'd thought was happy quietness but which the other person—if the relationship was new—had interpreted as awkward silence. Small talk after sex was not something she liked to feel obligated to engage in; if anything, forced conversation was far more awkward to her than silence. If a picture could say a thousand words, so, certainly, could a gesture be significant.

For example—her contentment was made clear by the way she had her arm draped over Jane's stomach, in the way she started to stroke it.

Jane's eyes were still closed. She was thoroughly exhausted after a long day at work, immediately followed by a much more pleasurable, but still ultimately draining, evening in Maura's bedroom. When Maura's fingers began tracing along her stomach, Jane couldn't manage much more than a weak chuckle—which turned into a groan when her stomach grumbled audibly.

"Oh, my!" Maura laughed. "Have you had dinner?"

"Nah," Jane admitted, opening her eyes. "I didn't want to stop to take the time at work, and then I just kinda came right over here. Don't worry about it," she said, sitting up. "I'll hit a drive-thru on my way home."

Maura sat up as well, making no comment on the fact that Jane had pulled up the blankets with her to cover herself. "Or, if you'd like to, you could eat something here. I'd hate to send you out on an empty stomach."

"Oh, that's okay," Jane said with a hint of bashfulness. "You don't have to feed me."

"I know I don't _have_ to," Maura said, "but I'd like to at least offer you my kitchen. I'm a little hungry myself; I might join you in a late night snack."

"Then please, let me at least repay your generosity by being the one to make you something. Have you got any cheese, any bread?"

"I believe so, yes."

"Great, then I—" Jane glanced at her discarded uniform on the floor. "Uh… I don't suppose you've got some clothes I could borrow, do you? I'm not sure I know you well enough to cook nude for you, and I'm sure if I put that uniform back on—"

"—then it wouldn't be food I'd end up wanting to eat," Maura agreed. "Point taken." She stood up without an ounce of self-consciousness about her nakedness and walked to the bathroom connected to the room. She tapped the dresser by the door and said, "There should be some pajamas that'd fit you in the bottom drawer here."

Jane sat in the bed a few moments longer, having been transfixed by the sight of Maura's body and her self-assuredness. It didn't at all matter that she'd already seen (and felt) that body in its entirety more than once; she was in awe of it and figured she always would be.

She put on a t-shirt and the longest pair of pajama pants she could find, chuckling because they were still a little short in the leg. A drawstring helped keep them in place as she walked to the kitchen.

When Maura came out of the bathroom, she saw Jane's uniform still crumpled on the floor. She sighed and picked it up to at least fold it, which she'd sort of expected Jane to do without being asked—but maybe she'd been too distracted by Maura's walk to the bathroom to remember it. (She had, though, folded up the towel Maura had laid down as a precaution being towards the end of her period.) As she folded the uniform, Maura saw "Rizzoli" stamped across the back in large white letters, which she had failed to notice earlier as she'd essentially pounced on Jane the moment she saw her and shed her of the uniform rather fast. It was then that she realized she'd been so excited by Jane's appearance that she hadn't stopped to wonder where the mechanic's uniform had come from. But this seemed like an odd thing to have personalized and just lying around the house…

"Okay, I swear I'm not an idiot," Jane said when Maura entered the kitchen. "I even already assembled the sandwiches! But your pans are all so fancy and I couldn't find any cooking spray and I'm also afraid if I try to use your stove, I'm gonna start a fire."

"It's not as complicated as it looks," Maura chuckled, putting the uniform down on the island to come help Jane. "Are these—are you making grilled cheese sandwiches?" she realized. "I've never had one before."

For the way Jane was looking at her, she might've just said she'd never had the experience of breathing air. "Well the pressure's on me to make sure this is done just right, then! Which of these pans would you say is the best for grilling?" Once Maura got her set up, Jane said, "You'll have to excuse my ignorance. I got all my cooking stuff from Target, and growing up, we just used the ole George Foreman grill. Got the job done pretty well."

Maura went back to sit on the other side of the island. "Not to change the subject, but where'd you get a customized mechanic's uniform?"

Jane laughed heartily. "Well, I hope it doesn't spoil the illusion _too_ much, but it's actually a plumber's uniform. My dad's a plumber, and we all worked for him in high school."

"Family business? That's sweet."

"Eh, it was more about getting away with paying us under minimum wage," Jane said, though she was smiling. "My brothers took up other jobs as soon as they could, but I loved getting to work with my Pop. If I hadn't always wanted to be a cop, heck, who knows? Maybe it'd be Rizzoli & Daughter Plumbing Company! He'd have probably liked that, too. Anyway I haven't worn the uniform in years, but I just never got around to getting rid of it." She flipped the sandwiches and offered Maura a mischievous grin. "I'm glad to know it could go on to have a second life and bring enjoyment to somebody else."

Maura smiled back, but she couldn't help feeling a little weird about desecrating an item that held significant memories of Jane working with her father. But Jane didn't seem to be uncomfortable, so she supposed she oughtn't to either. Still, she was grateful when the conversation turned back to sandwiches.

"Now of course, the best way to enjoy a grilled cheese is with tomato soup," Jane said. "So uh, I'll be sure to bring a can of Campbells next time. I don't suppose you have any milk, do you? Drinking that with 'em would be the next best thing."

"How wholesome. I have skim, is that all right?"

Normally Jane's response would be to say that skim milk was basically white-colored water, but rather than risk offending Maura's taste, she said it would be perfect. As Maura poured the glasses, Jane asked, "So what's _your_ dad like? Probably not a plumber, eh?" She remembered Maura had been a bit sour when it came to her mother, and hoped maybe the old man would come through.

But Maura sounded a mite tense when she said, "Oh, he's a very brilliant man. Historian, history professor. He taught me the value of hard work and study—taught by example, I mean. He's always been very invested in his work and his students." Before Jane could inquire further, Maura asked, "Are those done? They look really good."

"Hm? Oh yeah. I'd say I hope they taste as good as they look, but I know they will," she said, sliding the sandwiches onto plates and handing one to Maura. Confidence notwithstanding, it was still a tremendous relief to see Maura enjoy it. "I can't believe you've never had a grilled cheese," she said. "Like, what even was your childhood?"

"Clearly lacking if I didn't have these," Maura said. "Oh, my goodness."

"Sorry it's not the uh, healthiest choice for a late-night snack."

Maura just laughed. "Despite what your mother may have told you about my eating habits at the café, I'm not averse to indulging now and then."

Affecting her mother's voice, Jane said, "'Oh, Dr. Isles is such a lady, she eats like a bird!' What is that supposed to mean, anyway? I eat like a bird, too," she said, taking a massive bite of her sandwich and adding under her breath, "Like a friggin' cassowary."

Maura choked laughing in the middle of a sip of milk, and it got worse when some of it leaked out her nose. "Oh, it burns!" she gasped through her laughter, her voice hoarse as Jane guffawed. "Aaah, oh my God! I cannot believe that just happened. Wow."

She pinched the bridge of her nose. It was hard to imagine ending a night of intimacy with anyone else by having sandwiches and milk, but she felt that if she did, it would've been horribly embarrassing to have allowed said beverage to spill out of her nostrils. But with Jane, she didn't feel at all self-conscious. It was stupid and hilarious, not stupid and humiliating. Sure, Jane was laughing so hard she could barely breathe, but years of experience had helped Maura discern that she was laughed _with_ , not at.

"Oh man!" Jane crowed. "I can't wait to tell TJ that I made Dr. Isles laugh so hard, milk came out of her nose."

There was a line to the hilarity, though. "Oh, please no!" Maura said, getting up for another napkin and a glass of water. "I don't need this spread around, thanks."

"Aw, c'mon! I'll swear him to secrecy. Trust me, nothing would make you cooler in the eyes of a seven-year-old boy than to know you squirted milk out your nose."

"Nothing, hm?"

"Yeah, unless you were also secretly a Transformer or something."

"An electrical device that transfers electric energy between two or more circuits through electromagnetic induction?" Maura asked, sounding confused.

"What? No. A Transformer like a _robot in disguise!_ " she said, adopting a robotic tone. "You'd tell me if you were a robot, right?"

Maura pretended to think about it as she sat back down. "I don't think I would, no." They laughed a little over that, and Maura took another bite of the sandwich. "Mm. This must've been really nice comfort food when you were sick as a kid."

"Oh, sure. Now you've got me really curious about your childhood, though. What was it like?"

Maura shrugged as she chewed. She really didn't feel like getting into a conversation about her lonely childhood at this moment. "Different from yours," she surmised, hoping she didn't sound rude or bitter.

"Yeah, I gathered that," Jane said, grinning. "For example, given the Transformers reference that went over your head, I'm guessing you didn't get up early to watch cartoons on Saturday mornings."

"Goodness, no," Maura laughed. "Is that what you did?"

"Of course! Saturdays were the best. We'd get up at like six, eat bowls of sugary cereal, and watch hours of cartoons. And then we'd spend the day at the arcade. Ever been to an arcade?"

"I'm afraid not."

"Dang, woman. You're missing out." Jane made a show of sizing her up over a sip of milk. "Okay, let me try to guess. You were probably into a ton of extra-curriculars, yeah? And when you were a kid, I'm gonna go with… ballet."

"Not bad! I did do ballet—through high school, in fact. I've always enjoyed dancing, all kinds. What about you?"

"Eh, not really my scene."

"Oh, that's too bad."

The way Maura said it made Jane want to enroll in a class immediately—for salsa, ballroom, breakdancing, whatever. And then she got an idea.

When she picked up Maura for a date that Thursday, she insisted on keeping their destination a surprise. This was not met with the excited anticipation she had hoped for: "Please, Jane, I don't like surprises."

"What? Aw, c'mon. It's not like the surprise is that a guy in a gorilla costume is gonna jump out at you in the middle of dinner, or something, if that's what you're worried about. Not that that ever happened to me."

"I just like to be prepared, that's all. I'm dressed all right, aren't I?"

"Yeah, of course. And how much preparation could you even get in in like, the five minutes it's gonna take us to get there?"

"Just give me a hint at least, please."

Jane shot her a little teasing grin. "Hey, you said you liked dancing, right?"

"Are we going dancing?" It was too late for dinner; when Jane texted her, she thought she might want to get dessert somewhere.

"Something like that."

It threw Maura off when Jane pulled into the parking lot of a bowling alley and they walked inside. She was trying to figure out whether one could compare the desperate flailing of some bowlers to a sloppy pirouette when she realized Jane had stopped to instead face the extensive maze of arcade games inside the alley.

"You brought me to play video games?"

Jane's emerging detective skills apparently still needed some sharpening, because she was having trouble reading Maura's tone. Her expression did indeed relay surprise, but not necessarily the happy kind.

The arcade was filled with middle-school students and teenagers, a couple of whom were shooting quizzical looks at the women who'd shown up without being dragged there by children. Maura considered herself a fairly cool and collected person, one who could look back on embarrassing moments from her youth and laugh, but damned if adolescents didn't still make her feel horribly judged all over again. It was an irrational concern, she knew, but as Jane led the way through the arcade, Maura could feel herself wanting to disappear. Maybe it was because teenagers often lacked the social grace to mask their emotions, which led to no restraint on the judgment Maura could usually rise above. Or maybe it was just the reminder of a time in her life she was glad to have passed.

 _These kids probably just think I'm someone's mom,_ she thought, barely suppressing an eye roll.

Then they stopped, and Maura did a double take. "What am I—what kind of video game is this?" she asked.

"Dance Dance Revolution!" Jane said, gesturing towards the machine as if it were a pair of Jimmy Choos she had just found at a bargain price.

She was glad to at least finally see Maura laugh, even if it was one of disbelief. "A dancing game?"

"Yeah! It was all the rage when it came out a few years back, but I guess the novelty's kinda worn off at this point. Wii kinda took its place, too."

"You and who else? And…how?"

"What?"

"'We' took its place?"

"No, like the Nintendo Wii," Jane said. "A gaming console? It's … never mind. Wanna give it a go?"

She was clearly excited by the prospect, but Maura remained reserved. "I don't know," she said, drawing out each syllable. It didn't seem all that dignified, but even if she'd been willing to overlook that, there was the fact that she'd very likely end up humiliating herself in public.

Guessing the reason for Maura's hesitancy, Jane said, "You're not worried it's gonna be too hard for you, are ya? _How_ many degrees are hanging in your office?"

"Don't conflate medical and educational intelligence with the kind of hand-eye coordination required for video games," Maura said, not cracking a smile.

"Eh, more like foot-eye coordination in this case," Jane said. "C'mon, just one go? Or we could play a shoot-em-up game instead."

Maura glanced at some of the other consoles in the arcade, where kids were waving brightly-colored plastic guns. "Are we even allowed in here without accompanying a child?"

"It's attached to the bowling alley, so no, they don't care," Jane said with a shrug. "Besides, the workers here know me and they trust me, therefore they trust anyone I'd bring with me. It's all good." When Maura still looked hestitant, Jane said, "What do I gotta do to get ya to at least try it? Name your price."

She leaned closer for the sake of propriety, having made the offer with the expectation that Maura would ask for some kind of sexual favor.

Instead, Maura whispered in a seductive tone, "I want to take you clothes shopping."

She assumed gnashing of teeth or a groan at the very least, but instead Jane just shook her hand with a firm grip and said, "You drive a hard bargain, Dr. Isles, but you've got yourself a deal." She gave Maura a peck on the nose before the woman could process quite what had happened, and went to get some tokens. On her return, Jane saw that Maura was still eying the machine with some trepidation. "Would it make you feel better if you saw some people play it first, to give you an idea of how it's done?"

Maura laughed weakly. "I'm sure if we do that, I'm going to end up not wanting to play at all."

"All right, then!" Jane said brightly, hopping onto the platform and extending her hand towards Maura. "May I have this dance, milady?"

Maura stepped up and Jane gave her a brief explanation of the rules. "Do we have to oppose each other, or can we play together?" Maura asked.

"We can play as a team, yeah," Jane said. "Not that you'd have to worry about me kicking your butt or anything—I'm no expert."

But it quickly seemed that, compared to Maura, that's exactly what she was. After causing two game-overs in a row, Maura noticed some people had gathered to watch them. "Um, Jane? Really, I feel foolish. Can we just—"

"Naw, come on!" Jane said, scrolling through their options to pick another song. "Just one more!" She leaned in to whisper, "One more, and we can add lingerie to that shopping trip, whaddya say?"

At best she'd hoped for a 180 in enthusiasm; she expected at least a grudgingly excited eyeroll. What she got instead was a very morose look before Maura stepped off the platform and walked out of the arcade, back towards the bowling area. Dumbfounded, Jane followed her. "Hey, what's up? Are you okay?"

"I—I won't be if you keep pushing me like that!"

"Pushing you? What, you mean with the DDR? We were just having fun!"

"No, _you_ were having fun. And that's fine, I don't want to begrudge you that, but bring TJ or one of your brothers here for that. I don't like making a spectacle of myself doing something silly like that when I don't even know what it is I'm doing, and that's on top of the smell and all the flashing lights and the obnoxious noises each of these damn games makes so loud—and furthermore, I really don't appreciate how you brushed away my concerns as if they were trivial!"

Jane was completely caught off guard by the emotion behind the small tirade, but tried to mask it. "I—wow, I'm sorry, Maura. I didn't realize I was making you _that_ uncomfortable. I got carried away."

Maura bit back her initial reaction, which was to balk. How could anyone, especially an aspiring detective, have missed the clear signs of her discomfort? But Jane's apologetic tone threw her off. Judging by a couple of interactions she'd observed between Jane and her mother or Stanley, Maura had noticed Jane had a tendency to get over-defensive when she perceived she was being unfairly called out for something. Maura had thus expected caginess, but instead Jane sounded sincere in her penitence. At the very least, Maura had anticipated some sarcasm—not just because that was an attitude Jane seemed to favor, but because that was the tone which often accompanied her dates' remarks when she called them out for disregarding her comfort.

(Dennis taunting her for not wanting to go tagging.)

(Eliza snidely asking what objections she could possibly have to attending an ABC party.)

(Garrett insisting that she dance with his brothers at a family wedding to get to know them better, even when Adam's hands wandered.)

"I didn't mean to put you on the spot," Jane said, feeling embarrassed to have brought her here now. "I mean, I know it's kind of a silly thing, but that's part of the fun of it. I dunno, maybe I'm too used to making an ass of myself in public."

Maura sighed, all traces of righteous indignation diffused by Jane's softness. "Well," she said, "it _is_ a very nice ass, after all."

Jane snorted, pleasantly surprised. A joke would indicate Maura was lightening up a bit. Maybe she could press her luck…

She stepped a little closer, taking gentle hold of Maura's fingers and then interlocking them with her own. "Hey, um. I talked to Korsak about Crowe."

"You did?"

"Yeah. I figured you were right about his attitude. I guess I don't like people to think I'm too sensitive, like whatever, he can't get to me. But then you were saying how this wasn't just about me, it was bigger than me. And you hear all the time about cops who are quick to make assumptions, or even quick to shoot because of these deep-seated prejudices they have, and …if Crowe thinks he can call me a dyke around the precinct, yeah, that means he's probably not gonna be super sympathetic to any lesbians—"

"—or bisexuals."

"—or bisexuals," Jane conceded, "or other queer women who come to him for help. I mean, I'm not sure what real good a sensitivity training course can do, but if my speaking up can potentially help someone else, then it'd be selfish and stupid not to."

Maura stood on her toes and gave Jane a short kiss. "I'm glad, and I'm proud of you."

She moved to pull away, but Jane used her hold on Maura's hand to keep her close. "Now I know they aren't totally comparable, and you can punch me any time and that'll be the end of it, I promise—but. See, I would've been too nervous and too self-conscious to report Crowe if you hadn't encouraged me to. And now I'm really glad I did. And I realize you're nervous and self-conscious about doing a dancing game in an arcade—but if you really commit to letting yourself go, and embrace looking like a weirdo and knowing I'll be being a fool right next to you, you might have fun." Maura was beginning to look agitated again, hastening Jane to add, "if not, we can totally just leave," with her friendly smile in place to let Maura know all really would be well.

"All right," Maura finally said. "I'll do _one_ more dance—or game, or whatever—with you."

But now that Maura had had the time to relax, one round was not sufficient; she found herself having fun. It occurred to her that she usually didn't laugh this much in public unless she was at least a little buzzed, but Jane was too funny. While Maura initially focused on just hitting the squares where and when she needed to, Jane exaggerated each move with gusto, and Maura soon followed her lead.

The main reason they stopped was because some other people had started hovering nearby to use the machine. Both exhilarated and a little sweaty, they meandered by some of the other arcade games.

"You were right, that was entertaining in a strange way," Maura laughed. "I mean, I felt like a complete idiot and would rather try some version I could play at home, but that was fun."

"I'm glad!" Jane said. She gave Maura a teasing nudge. "And I'm proud of you. Hey, you know what else I bet you never did in high school? Take down squads of zombies with a plastic blue rifle."

"I've never taken down any zombies at any time of my life with any sort of weapon."

"What would you use?"

"A bulldozer, of course. Zombies can't move very fast."

"Clever! But don't you have to shoot them in the head to make sure they're really dead?"

Maura shrugged. "I would bulldoze them off a tall enough precipice to ensure that they sustained the brain damage required to take them out of commission."

"Fair enough," Jane chuckled. "Whaddya say, wanna give the guns a go anyway?"

Maura thoughtfully considered the console Jane had stopped by (thinking it looked far too gory and frightening to belong in an establishment which catered to children). "I have a counter-offer."

"Shoot," Jane joked, clicking the plastic trigger.

Noting some teenage boys lurking nearby, Maura lowered her voice. "I'm happy to help you annihilate zombies if you'd prefer. But after the high given to me by several rounds of fake dancing, I'd like to capitalize on it by doing something which television tells me a lot of teenagers do, but I never got the opportunity for."

Jane's head was reeling with the options. "What's that?"

Maura lowered her voice even more, stepping closer. "Did you ever have sex in a car when you were in high school?"

Jane could feel her face burning. "You're that worked up, huh?" she asked. Maura bit her lip and nodded. "And if I said I'd prefer to just shoot zombies, you could just like, shut it down and be fine?"

Maura hadn't expected that response, but she didn't want to push Jane. "To be entirely honest—which you know I always am—I would ask to be excused to take care of it myself. Probably in the security of your car."

Jane cleared her throat. "Ok, I've got a counter-counter offer."

"Let's hear it."

If she'd wanted to, Jane could've gotten into details: she'd tried sex in a car with her first serious girlfriend when she was nineteen, and it had been horribly awkward. She'd felt too tall, and everything—the doors, the steering wheel, the emergency brake—had been way too close. She'd felt too cramped to really let herself get aroused. It was kind of funny now, but at the time, it had been a major turn-off and low-key humiliating. She didn't want to risk anything like that when she was still getting to know Maura.

"Can I just watch?"

Maura's eyebrows rose, and by way of response, she took Jane's hand and led her back to the car.

"What're you doing?" Maura asked when Jane started to drive.

"There's a street just a couple blocks down that doesn't have any lights on it."

"What's it matter? It's dark outside and your windows are tinted."

"I know, but not the windshield! It's just a peace of mind thing. Can you hold off for like thirty seconds?"

Apparently not. Jane had sped through a yellow light, made a quick turn onto a dark street, and parked and shut off the car in record time to see that Maura had already started. She'd have thought Maura might've wanted to at least recline the seat a bit, but nope. There she was, eyes closed, lips parted, one hand clenching the seat while the other set a frantic pace beneath her jeans.

Jane was stunned, in part because she herself usually needed some kind of stimulation, mental or physical, to really get herself going.

"How d'you do that?" she murmured in awe, her voice rasping with the whisper. "What gets you off so fast?"

A small moan slipped out before Maura gasped, "That."

"What?"

"That. Your voice, telling me you want to watch me." She shifted and her last word slid into another soft gasp. "Mm—oh, _God._ There's never been a voice that could get me off like that."

Jane undid her seatbelt with such rapidity that the buckle almost clocked her in the face. "Holy hell," she groaned, unbuckling her jeans next. "I think this must be some kinda personal best for me. Shit."

It really had been her intention to just watch and listen, but she hadn't anticipated how it would feel to hear Maura touching herself while also moaning over something as simple as Jane's voice.

"Jane, I'm so close—please, don't stop talking."

Jane didn't waste time wishing she could come up with something unique or seductive; she could tell by the desperation in Maura's voice that any words would do. "Dammit, you are so hot," she grunted. "You're so hot, Maura, and this is so hot." She groaned and lifted herself up slightly from the seat to give herself a better angle, and that sent Maura over the edge—somewhat loudly. "Jesus, Maura!" she laughed. "The windows are tinted, but the car's not sound proof!"

"I know, I'm sorry," Maura gasped. "Mmph, but I could go again. You better make sure to keep me quiet—"

Jane reached over the console and curled one hand around Maura's neck to bring her in for a kiss. Her other hand nudged Maura's out of her pants to help. Maura broke off the kiss, fully intending to tease Jane about just wanting to watch—but when Jane began sucking on her neck, the only sound that came from Maura's parted lips was a long gasp.

* * *

"Has anyone's voice ever had that kind of effect on you?"

Jane was driving Maura home, silently thanking every deity she could think of for giving her the voice this woman found so irresistible. "What kind of effect, exactly?" she joked.

"Far-reaching, I suppose. It's a voice that can get you to do things you normally wouldn't—like a dancing video game in a public place—and can also flood your panties in seconds."

"Geez, doc!" Jane laughed. "You have got to be the most blunt person I know. Not that I'm complaining."

"You're evading. Does that mean I need to be jealous?"

"Nah, nah," Jane said, glancing over and seeing Maura's smile. "I mean, I guess that's never really been a thing for me."

"It's usually not for me, either. You're very unique. You could probably get me off just by reading a phone book."

Jane's grip tightened on the steering wheel, as if that would somehow help relieve the throbbing between her legs. _Distract yourself._ "Oh, wait. I gotta couple voices in mind."

"Who?"

"James Coburn and Lee Marvin."

"What?" Maura snickered. "Are you kidding?"

"I'm totally serious! Those guys have the sexiest voices, I swear to God."

"But they're so _macho_ ," Maura said, her tone indicating that was the most odious thing a person could aspire to be. "And don't they look like squinty old pieces of leather someone left out in the sun?"

"I wouldn't have expected such a shallow comment from you!" Jane laughed. "And besides, you said _voices_ , not appearances. Although for the record, I definitely think they were ruggedly handsome. At least, that's what I told my parents before I was out. My dad loved watching those old westerns and war movies with us, and I have this really distinct memory of being like twelve and watching _The Dirty Dozen_ and seeing all these awesome legit tough guys, like Lee Marvin and Charles Bronson and oh, Jim Brown, and …I thought they were all total studs, y'know? But in this weird way, it wasn't like I was attracted to them, but like I wanted to _be_ them. Not be a man, but like have their energy. I thought that was so sexy."

Maura's only real recollection of any of these men came from a paper she'd written for an elective film class in college ("A Not-So-Secret _Death Wish_ : Reinforcing the Heroism of White Male Vigilante Justice").

"Yeah, I'd go straight for them," Jane added jokingly. "Is that weird, though? Is it like …bad, or anti-feminist or something that those are the kind of guys I'd find sexy?"

"I wouldn't put too much stock in celebrity fantasies," Maura said. "Although I do find it interesting that what attracts you to them is what turns me off about them. And yet some of those qualities are what I find so attractive in you."

"It's because I'm safe."

"What?"

"That's how my first girlfriend put it," Jane explained, turning onto Maura's street. "She said that sometimes I had like a masculine energy that she was really attracted to, but that it didn't come with the risk of what a guy with an attitude like that might do if you ever pissed him off. Which isn't to say women can't get scary or abusive," Jane was quick to add, "but do you know what I mean?"

They were now stopped outside of Maura's house. "Yes, I get what you mean."

"Do you feel safe with me?"

Maura considered Jane's face, where all lines pointed to seriousness. Her impulse, then, was to give an affirmative answer, but after another moment's thought she wondered whether that was only her reaction because Jane—albeit with no malicious intent—wanted to hear it. Feeling safe required trust, and although Maura trusted Jane quite a lot for having only known her a short time …it was an answer she didn't want to give lightly.

She took Jane's face in her hand, as if appraising her. "You don't frighten me in the least," she said. "You make me feel happy when I'm around you." She leaned in for a short kiss. "And sometimes you make me happy even when I'm not around you." When Jane groaned, Maura chuckled and said, "I didn't mean that in a dirty way."

"Oh. Well that's sweet, then."

"Of course, that isn't to say it wouldn't also be true in a dirty way…"

Jane kissed her again and pulled back, wearing a smile that was anything but innocent. "Tell you what. When I get home, I'm gonna call and leave you a real nice voicemail to listen to. So don't pick up, okay?"

When Maura checked her messages before going to bed, it was to hear a very long one Jane had left her—reading the first page of the phone book her apartment manager gave all the new tenants, which she'd never bothered to open until tonight.


End file.
